January 2006 Archives
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Fighting Presbyterian Divestment -- New Web Site
One Presbyterian...one Jew...one web site to fight divestment in the PC(USA).
"Who We're Not"
This site is a collaboration between two writers, one Christian, one Jewish, who met on the Internet and discovered a common interest in educating people of good will regarding the contentious issue of divestment from the state of Israel. Neither of us represents any official organization, nor are we advocates of any official doctrine, religious or political movement, or position on the Middle East peace process. Rather, we hope to use the Internet to share our writing, research and experience to help an important institution, the Presbyterian Church, avoid the trap being set for them by the advocates of divestment.
Anyone concerned with the issue of anti-Israel divestment within Protestantism should keep an eye on this site and consider giving them some attention if you have the ability to do so.
Richard Cohen: Believe it: Hamas target is Israel
I don't usually care much for Richard Cohen, but he makes some very nice points in this one. My arguments with the piece are only that he, as is the fashion, both caricatures the push for democratization and overstates Fatah's secular face -- it was, it was still Islamist/Jihadist not far below the surface.
Richard Cohen: Believe it: Hamas target is Israel
If you would have asked a random German in, say, 1932 if he was voting for the murder of Jews, he would have said, "Nein!" What he really wanted was an end to the brawling in the streets and a big thumbs-up to traditional German culture...
...For the Nazi, it was all in their bible, "Mein Kampf," and in their rallies and speeches. It took some effort to overlook their stated intentions, but a considerable number of people managed to do so and later professed shock at what happened. They looked into the abyss, saw nothing that concerned them personally - and went back to sleep...
Also, this, and if you can get past the gratuitous Bush-bash, you'll note a rather shocking, but not unusual attitude from a man of the Left:
The leaders of Hamas brim with the word of God and the certainty of their cause. From here on they will lie about their ultimate aim and smilingly assure us that what they have always said they no longer mean. All over the world, people will believe them and urge the U.S. and Israel to do the same. Take my word for this. Anyone can see the future. It's all in the past.
(H/T: isirota1965)
Also in the SWAG bag: What I Like About Jew
I haven't listened to funny Jewish music since that Star of David shaped blue-vinyl single of Gefilte Joe and the Fish's "Take a Walk on the Kosher Side" I had as a kid. In fact, I haven't listened to much Jewish music at all since then.
Last night after ripping the CD and uploading it to the internet (HaHa! Joke.) I listened to What I Like About Jew's album, Unorthodox. What I Like About Jew is a duo of two guys named Sean Altman (former Rockapella front man) and Rob Tannenbaum (comedy writer who's worked with John Leguizamo).
I wasn't expecting much, but I can say I was very pleasantly surprised. The songs are professionally done, catchy and definitely funny in an intelligent (but warning: adults only) way.
Their web site, where you can listen to samples and purchase the CD if you like, is here: What I Like About Jew.
Anglicans for Israel Interview
Speaking of not all the world being a dark corner, you may enjoy listening to AFI Co-ordinator Simon McIlwaine being interviewed on the Tovia Singer show. Listen or download here.
(H/T: Cynic)
In the mailbag: Scars of War, Wounds of Peace : The Israeli-Arab Tragedy by Shlomo Ben-Ami
Just received a copy of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace : The Israeli-Arab Tragedy by Shlomo Ben-Ami from the folks at Oxford University Press. I linked to a couple of short interviews with the author previously and those entries are here and here.
I'll certainly be adding this one to the reading queue.
American Association of University Professors Considers Academic Boycott Issue
John Pike writes of how the American Association of University Professors is considering picking up what the British Association of University Teachers has already discarded, and how they are already screwing the pooch.
American Association of University Professors blunders on boycott - Jon Pike
(H/T: anonymous commenter)
Light in Dark Corners -- Divestment Retrospective
Jon Haber, one of the core activists working against anti-Israel divestment efforts in Somerville, Massachusetts last year, has a must-read retrospective on the subject for anyone interested in the latest issue of the Engage Journal:
Divestment Meets its Waterloo in Somerville, Massachusetts
For readers of Engage, the exploitation of progressive rhetoric to subvert an institution (in this case, a US city) will sound depressingly familiar. Fortunately, the success of fair-minded citizens to turn back anti-Israel divestment, boycott and vilification mirrors Engage's own success in halting the misuse of positive principles like human rights and academic freedom for misguided, even wicked, political ends...
The story has a happy ending, though, like a Chuckie or Freddie movie, there is always room for a sequel, unfortunately.
One of the themes of this happy story is that of "overreaching," and speaking of overreaching, this is a good opportunity to point out the happy story (unhappy for him) of New England based anti-Israel, pro-Divestment, radical-Leftist activist, Mazin Qumsiyeh. (Previous links mentioning Qumsiyeh's antics on this blog: Palestine Day in Connecticut - Part 1, Clueless in Danbury and A Letter to Georgetown). Those in the know will be aware that Qumsiyeh had one of his screeds (he seems to crank them out full time) published in the official literature at the Davos forum. While the anti-Semitism on display outside the gates at Davos was one of the first things I noted on this blog three years ago (scroll to Feb. 3), this is, as far as I'm aware, its most overt appearance inside officialdom. See this blog post at Le Monte de Sisyphe for a run-down of what happened.
That's bad you say? Well, yes, but here's the thing. Much as recent boycott blather by certain Leftist Norwegian politicians sent Norwegian officialdom scampering for microphones to issue obsequious apologies, Qumsiyeh's joy at publication must have been short-lived, asthe appearance of his printed drivel sent the Chairman of the World Economic Forum immediately lunging for a keyboard to issue his unequivocal "it will never happen again" apology. It seems that outside the echo-chamber of obscure web-sites and activist meetings, when Qumsiyeh finished following Cindy Sheehan around on the "peace bus" and stepped out into the light of day...the instant he did that...he became an international embarrassment. That's worth keeping in mind as a little morale boost for those of us who spend a lot of time shining lights into dark corners and imagining that all the world is dark corners.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Trial of the century
Sir, I'm afraid you're seated next to an anti-semite.
Here's a little article in The Presbyterian Outlook that does the usual yada-yada absolving the author and friends of the charge of anti-Semitism. Phew! What a relief!
Is the Presbyterian Church (USA) Anti-Semitic?
Most of the article requires registration to read (BugMeNot), but it's not that important since I'm not going to go through it point-by-point anyway. Here's the thing -- the quick point I wanted to make -- and it's something that a lot of people like the author, Geoff Browning, don't seem to grasp. They are stepping into a long running story, a narrative with a story-line and actors well known to each other. We've seen one attempted genocide after another since before the founding of the state, and every time an attendant re-writing of history, and in recent decades a campaign of unbelievable ideological ferocity designed by those very same people for the specific purpose of hiding their true agenda -- one that's expressed itself through massacre, stealth slaughter and main force by turns whenever the means or opportunity have presented themselves. So now the representatives of the same agenda have cast about for new means and new terms to cloak itself in, and it's had some success.
However they cloak themselves, we recognize them and their purpose. We know who's seated at the other end of the table.
So along come folks like Mr. Browning, and we enter and see him seated at the other end of the table from us, in line with all those faces we've seen before, saying all the same things they do. It should come as absolutely no surprise to Mr. Browning that he and others like him get accused of being anti-Semites.
Now, maybe it's not his fault that he can't see behind their masks. He doesn't have our experience or knowledge -- although certainly, the more you know, the less excuse you have, and it's perhaps ironic that Browning's piece appears in the same issue as an interview with one of those folks who has no excuse and probably is an anti-Semite, Fahed Abu-Akel -- but all these articles declaring how pure of heart the author and friends really are are quite beside the point. Look at where you're sitting, and who it is you're sitting with!
About those NGO's
Lots of interesting stuff here...
As the former head of Amnesty International's branch in Israel has revealed, this NGO does not have the independent research capacity to support numerous claims of human rights violations. (Michael Ehrlich, "Amnesty International do your homework" The Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2005) Similarly, Alan Dershowitz sought to verify allegations in Amnesty's reports: "On Aug. 23, 2005, I spoke with Donatella Rovera, who is AI's researcher on Israel and the Occupied Territories and asked her to provide the data on which she had based her conclusion that violence against women had escalated to an 'unprecedented level' during the occupation, and especially during its most militarized phase. Rovera confirmed that the report was based on anecdotal information, primarily from Palestinian NGOs. 'We talk to anyone who would talk to us,' she said. When I asked her for a list of the NGO's that were the sources of the information, she refused to provide them because 'there are things we can simply not provide to outsiders.' It is impossible under these circumstances for any outside researcher to replicate AI's study and to confirm or disconfirm its conclusions." (Alan M. Dershowitz, "Scapegoat to the World," National Post, September 17, 2005)...
Arab studies guide omits Israel history
The Jewish Advocate: Arab studies guide omits Israel history by Ted Siefer
Among the materials used by Harvard's Middle East Studies Outreach Center is the Arab World Studies Notebook, a 500-page binder of curriculum materials produced by the Middle East Policy Council and Arab World and Islamic Resources. MEPC receives direct funding from the government of Saudi Arabia, and AWAIR receives funding from Aramco, the Saudi state oil company.
Critics of the notebook, including the American Jewish Committee, charge that it is riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods. The notebook "appears largely designed to advance the anti-Israel and propagandistic view of the Notebook's sponsors," AJC said in a statement last year.
Some of the problematic passages in the book cited by the notebook's critics include:
• In a chapter on American policy in the Middle East, one of the book's contributors writes: "The questions of Jewish lobbying and its impact on Truman's decision with regard to American recognition [of Israel in 1948] – and indeed the whole question of defining American interests and concerns – is well worth exploring."
• In a chapter called "The Question of Palestine," the book asserts that before the start of the 1948 war, "armed Jewish groups had driven much of the Palestinian population from their homes, thus capturing most of the Palestinians' land through acts of sheer terror and intimidation."
• In the section on Arab culture, one chapter is devoted to Jerusalem, described as an "Arab city" surrounded by high rises "built for Israeli settlers to strengthen Israeli control over the holy city."
• Israel is missing from a map of the Middle East; a map of Palestine encompasses the pre-1948 boundaries.
Harvard's outreach center has used the notebook in department of education-sponsored teacher training institutes. The center is one of 18 Middle East centers around the country that receive federal funding under title VI of the 1958 Higher Education Act; each center receives about $500,000 a year, according to a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2005...
Congress Racing to Isolate a Hamas Regime
NY Sun: Congress Racing to Isolate a Hamas Regime
Here's the best part:
Nothing would do more for Middle East peace than shutting down UNRWA and the rest of the Palestinian entitlement infrastructure at the UN. Nothing.
Bill Stands Up
I've always liked Bill Handel's radio show. He's on on the weekends here in Boston. Funny guy. His is the legal show where he "tells you you have absolutely no case," and he does.
Now, I would not have made the remarks he did about the Hajj deaths. It was inappropriate and in bad taste to say the least. I might feel differently if it had been a Hamas rally at which people were trampled, but the Hajj? No. That's not cool.
Nevertheless, he's a sometimes dopy, irreverent radio guy who is routinely tasteless and offensive to pretty much everyone.
So I am so glad to see Bill standing up to CAIR's bullying (via LGF: Handel Fires Back). You can listen to Bill's statement here.
I actually think Bill leaves CAIR too much wiggle-room. I don't think they'd have an trouble condemning Bin Laden, for instance, and gone are the days when CAIR spokemen appear on talk shows and state outright that groups like Hamas are freedom fighters -- they're way more slippery than that now.
Anyway, big thumbs up to Bill Handel for standing up to CAIR, and helping to expose what they really are and what they really stand for. They are tied to Hamas.
Looking into the future with Hamas
In short: We won't ever give up fighting for Palestinian land. It's all Palestinian land.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
The Yellow River
Philip Hensher reviews Robert Irwin's, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies -- What should not be known:
[Emphasis mine. Via Martin Kramer]
Just give us what we want...
...and we'll consider not killing you (and ourselves).
CNN: Hamas leader sets conditions for truce
The conditions included Israel's retreating to its pre-1967 borders and releasing Palestinian prisoners...
I'm glad they used that word "retreating," because that's precisely one of the reasons why it's not going to happen.
Cartoons
Look, would I have published cartoons of Mohammed? No, I wouldn't have. I don't believe in giving gratuitous offense, and that's what doing such a thing seems to be to me.
On the other hand, this sure is coming to be an awfully effective method of opening the curtain and showing the great difference between the lands of the Free and the lands of the Fearful, between East and West, the tolerant and the intolerant, a stubborn few Europeans and a shockingly weak and fragile religion of over a billion people.
This is a broad generalization, but bear with me. A lot of us here in the US, and I think it's something sort of particular to the northeast, have this way of dealing with...testing...newcomers. We needle them. We apply a lit put-down humor. Just to see how they react. If they can take it, if they can be even a little self-effacing in return, or maybe give it back in good humor, then they're in. If not, if they flip out and show their delicate ego and that hanging with them is going to be like walking on egg shells, then that's it, it's gonna take a lot to get them "in."
Well if you didn't already know it, the Muslim world is showing they just can't take it, and in fact they can't take even the smallest things...even a few lame cartoons in a paper no one in the world reads published in a country no one ever heard of before this happened (slight exageration -- no offense).
And not only are they offended, and obviously annoyed, but they're flipping out. How weak must these peoples' psyches be to melt down this completely? Why, one might begin to believe that these folks may not be the type of folks that we can have around. Maybe we're just not very compatible, and that's pretty useful information to have.
The Kuwaitis are pushing for a boycott: Kuwaitis push boycott of Danish goods, the Saudis have recalled their ambassador: Pressure mounts on Denmark over prophet cartoons, and, in the ultimate demonstration that the United Nations is populated by people who's values and the uses they seek to put that institution to are so different from ours that they ensure that the UN can't ever...ever...possibly be trusted with any serious responsibility, both the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference are pushing the UN to pass a resolution to ban and sanction such insults: UN urged to ban attack on religion (via LGF):
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said in Cairo on Sunday that the international body would "ask the UN general assembly to pass a resolution banning attacks on religious beliefs".
The deputy secretary-general of the Arab League, Ahmed Ben Helli, confirmed that contacts were under way for such a proposal to be made to the UN.
"Consultations are currently taking place at the highest level between Arab countries and the OIC to ask the UN to adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs and providing for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions," he said.
Twelve cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily last September and reprinted in a Norwegian magazine earlier this month, sparked uproar in the Muslim world where images of the prophet are considered blasphemous...
You know, year after year, one sort of millenial-style group after another has popped up to assassinate some official, spark some disaster, blow up some building...all in the hope of sparking the great race war or trigger some other hair-brained fantasy apocalypse.
It's a good thing they didn't know it could have been done so cheaply and easily before. Of course, we now have to give thanks in large part to the information super-highway for all this. The fast flow of information allows offense to spread pretty quickly, too. There's no longer any need to blow things up yourself, just publish a few cartoons and the rest will take care of itself.
Here's a geek anology that only some of you will get: If the world is like one big computer BBS, then some of its most vocal Muslim users are now complaining about an offensive posting that was put up by another participant. They've gone to complain to the Admin (in this case the UN) to not only discipline this user, but put up new rules so that they never have to feel offended again. It won't work, it can't work. No one has the right never to be offended, and no one can guarantee they never will be, and the Admins don't need, nor should they have, the power necessary to even try. What the OIC and the Arab League and everyone else needs is a good lesson in freedom of speech and just plain sucking it up.
Update: See Atlas on this, here, and also Egyptian blogger the Ranting Sandmonkey here and here. Also, Augean Stables, here.
Update2: Michelle Malkin has posted the twelve cartoons as well as a number of links, including this link to Zombie's collection of Mohammed images through the ages.
No matter what we do, it's still your fault
Think the Hamas election is concerning because of what Hamas is? Think blaming everyone else but yourself is purely a Middle Eastern trait? Step in to the topsy-turvy world of Arab American News, where everything hinges on Israel and the United States...even peacemaking with genocidal Nazis.
The Arab American News: Hamas victory a huge opportunity for peace
A Presbyterian Reports on Divestment
Here: Arab American News: Presbyterian Church hosts divestment debate by Kristine Currie
Tilting at Alito
Wow. Here's a Joan Vennochi column I almost completely agree with. Democrats take heed (actually, I'd prefer they didn't of course).
Boston Globe: Tilting at Alito
At the last minute, Senator John Kerry called for a filibuster to stop the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. Senator Edward M. Kennedy joined the fight.
The initial reaction from fellow Democrats was tepid. Tepid it should remain.
Alito is conservative. But radical? The Democrats failed to make the case during hearings which proved only one thing beyond a reasonable doubt: their own boorishness.
Calling for a filibuster is a late, blatant bow to the left. It seemed more theatrical than realistic. Still, any such bowing from Massachusetts helps the Bush administration. ''Bring it on," chortled the Wall Street Journal after Kerry announced his effort to rally fellow Democrats from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. There, the Journal snidely observed, he was ''communing with his political base."
Calling for a filibuster makes political sense for Kennedy, who is adored by every left-wing constituency in America. He isn't running for national office; he can afford to stick to strict liberal principle. He wants to go down fighting. For Kennedy, a filibuster call mollifies the left at no political cost. It is also an attempt to make up for the obvious: He used the wrong tone and tactics during the hearings. Going after Alito as a bigot backfired. Forget about Mrs. Alito's tears. The moment Kennedy was exposed for belonging to a discriminatory college fraternal organization, it was over. He lost the moral high ground...
...The longer Democrats and Republicans in Congress maintain the high level of hostile partisanship, the less attractive any would-be presidential candidate who hails from Congress looks. These senators who would be president help the cause of governors -- Democrats and Republicans -- who hold the same ambition...
The trouble is that time after time during the primaries I thought Kerry was making such a spectacular ass of himself I figured he may not even hold his Senate seat. Boy did that turn out to be wrong. He did make it -- almost all the way -- before his fatal flaws finally caught up with him. The thing is that an extraordinarily friendly press helped with that, as they did with Howard Dean until buyer's remorse set in on that purchase and Kerry became the media's favorite son. This time around, the buyer's remorse is going to start early.
Cross-posted at Hub Politics
Jacoby: Hamas victory is good news
Exactly right.
Jacoby: Hamas victory is good news
I say that not because Hamas is anything other than a blood-drenched terrorist group, but because its lopsided win is an unambiguous reality check into the nature of Palestinian society. And if there is one thing that the West badly needs, it is more realism and less delusion about the Palestinians.
Some of that delusion was on display at the White House on Thursday, when President Bush painted the Palestinian election as a ''healthy" exercise in civic reform...
...Spare us, Mr. President. If a slate of neo-Nazi skinheads swept to power in a European election, would you say that the voters were seeking ''honest government" and ''services"? Palestinians are not stupid, and it insults their intelligence to pretend that when they vote to empower a genocidal organization with a platform straight out of ''Mein Kampf," what they're really after is better healthcare. Islamist extremism isn't needed to fix Palestinian hospitals any more than fascism was needed to make Italian trains run on time in the 1920s. If Palestinians turned out en masse to elect a party that unapologetically stands for hatred and mass murder, it's a safe bet that hatred and mass murder had something to do with the turnout.
By the same token, Hamas's new duties are not going to turn it into a moderate group of diligent civil servants. When violent Islamists win political power, their brutality and zealotry do not diminish. (See Khomeini, Ayatollah and Taliban, Afghan). The notion that Hamas now has ''a choice to make" is just another example of the delusional thinking that is so pervasive when it comes to the Palestinian Authority...
Extensive Report on Suicide Bombing
The Center For Special Studies has an extensive, 300 page study of cuicide bombing, including breakdowns of the groups that carried them out and their number, including descriptions and photos of attacks, their perpetrators and victims, here: Suicide bombing terrorism during the current Israeli-Palestinian confrontation (September 2000 - December 2005) [PDF].
However, during the past year (under Abu Mazen and during the lull) there has been a marked increase in the activity of the PIJ, which as become the organization most active in carrying out suicide bombing attacks. During 2005 it was responsible for five deadly suicide bombing attacks as opposed to two by Hamas (one in January, before the lull).
and:
There are also translated documents like this one: A document captured during Operation Defensive Shield (April 2002): a Palestinian intelligence report dated October 31, 2001, regarding Iran’s intentions to use Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist organizations [translation in extended entry]:
Continue reading "Extensive Report on Suicide Bombing"Saturday, January 28, 2006
Three Years
I just realized today is my three-year blogiversary. Yes, three years ago today I put up my first post. At that time I couldn't even spell blawgger, now I are one.
I shant bore you all with more of the philosophy of blogging, I did that a bit in this post, and I figure that's not what most people come around for.
I do thank all of you who stop by, read, leave comments, send emails or link here. There's no point to having a web site no one ever visits, and you have made the whole exercise worthwhile. A tip of my white plume to you all:
Be fruitful and multiply.
Someone has sent me a link to a timely and festive video I'd like to pass on, but alas, it's rather hard R-rated and perhaps not appropriate for this web site...ahem...
Hitler was democratically elected
According to the folks at LGF, Jamal Mohammad Mahmoud Abu al-Rob, known to his friends as "Hitler" (seriously) has earned an elected place in the Palestinian legislature. He was #12 on the Fatah list [see first PDF file on that page: Candidates for the electoral lists].
I wonder if he gets angry when people call him "Schicklgruber."
Another look at Shikaki
Martin Kramer has a very good post on the same subject as mine below (see: Checking the Polls) -- the reliability of the polling conducted by Khalil Shikaki and what it all means. Do check it out. This is very important for understanding how decisions get made at high levels and why opinion polling matters.
First Kramer adds a personal note on the earlier controversy surrounding Shikaki:
On the significance of polling:
Read it all here: Polls that hid Hamas
Reporting on Hamas from Sabeel
Thanks to the commenter in the post below, I see the Sabeel blogger I mentioned in an earlier post has a couple of new entries up. The latest concerning the election results is most interesting, and does a good job of presenting the party line of the Arab narrative -- the Palestinian Arabs themselves are not really actors, their acts, including acts of terrorism, are viewed through a screen (indeed, the word "terrorist" appears only in scare-quotes), while Israelis are viewed as competent actors and their actions viewed in the full light of day and responsibility. Were the elections fair and democratic? No, but only because of Israeli decisions and the issues involving Jerusalem. Now, you would have to really, really not be paying attention to think Jerusalem and the Israelis were the only problems standing in the way of open democracy in "Palestine" (scare quotes!), but there it is, reported by a person who's working with a group relied upon by large numbers of American Protestants to explain the situation there. That's what makes Sabeel and people like this blog author a bit worse than just one more fool (or dhimmi) with a blog...they matter, and their descriptions and explanations -- explanations that are all politics and no substance -- are trusted to be accurate and describe reality in a useful manner. They are not and they do not, and that's something that people relying on them should be aware of.
Here's the comment I left at the blog. I post it here because I do not expect the blogger there to approve it for posting. Yes, I'm a little sarcastic again...
What is your opinion on Fatah's threat to "liquidate" any of its members who join with Hamas? Is that compatible with democratic norms?
In the extended entry I've posted a primer on elections and East Jerusalem that appeared at the beginning of January on a mailing list I subscribe to, prepared by someone at the Galilee Institute.
Continue reading "Reporting on Hamas from Sabeel"Friday, January 27, 2006
The Liberation of Auschwitz
I was just reminded by Meryl that today is the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It's a good muse for a post, but it's a bit late now. In the extended entry is a re-post of my entry from two years ago. I can't write anything like that but now and again, anyway.
Continue reading "The Liberation of Auschwitz"Completely honest, completely fair, completely safe and without violence
Jimmy Carter said that. Heh. You have to overlook a few things, like a lot of violence leading right up to the election, and what's happened since. Meryl Yourish (It’s called “rioting,” AP) and Robert Spencer (Hamas, Fatah battle over election results) have round-ups on some of some of the goings-on.
Iran's Gaza Front
An indication of the extent to which the Palestinian Authority became a client of Iran was the January 2002 attempted delivery of arms purchased by the Palestinian Authority from Iran with the assistance of Hezbollah. The arms delivery was thwarted when the Israeli Navy intercepted and seized the 4000-ton Karine A, a Palestinian freighter that was transporting 50 tons of Iranian manufactured weapons, including missiles equipped with Tandem-Charge warheads capable of piercing heavy armor, and 122 mm Katyusha rockets with a range of 12 miles. Other weapons included Strela anti-aircraft missiles, mortar tubes and bombs, land mines, Russian manufactured wire-guided Sagger missiles, ammunition, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and explosives.
The Iranian effort to infiltrate the Palestinian areas has only increased. Hezbollah serves as a conduit for the distribution of Iranian funds to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim, both affiliated with Fatah, for terror attacks against Israelis.
Thus, there are an ever-increasing number of terror operatives from these factions that now work for Iran. As of October 2004, 80% of the terror attacks that took place in or originating from the West Bank against Israelis were coordinated by Hezbollah. Nearly all of the terror activities carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were reportedly directed and financed by Hezbollah and Iran. Hezbollah reportedly awards bounties of $5,000 for each Israeli killed by Fatah terrorist cells. As a result, these operatives remain agents of the Fatah factions in name only.
Viewed as a whole, Palestinian organizations funded by Hezbollah were responsible for 20% of terror attacks against Israelis in 2004. Nine million dollars - nearly 10% of Hezbollah's $100 million annual budget - was devoted to funding Palestinian terrorist groups operating in Palestinian Authority areas. Each cell was provided between $5,000 and $8,000 a month by Hezbollah for expenses, including arms, cell phone calling cards, and spending money...
The once and future city
Here's a longish piece in the Jerusalem Post about the archaeological digs going on in Jerusalem and about which I've often posted here.
You can read the whole thing to get up to date, but I'll skip right down to the conclusion:
"The Bible has a power that has lasted for over two millennia. People longed for Jerusalem, people came here and felt that they were walking in the footsteps of David. So revealing even half a palace doesn't really change anything for most people. In fact, those who are looking for definitive proof will be disappointed. You are never going to find a plaque on a wall which says David the son of Jesse lived here."
And anyway, he continues, "Even if you find David's palace, it doesn't change anything politically. We have the Cave of Machpela in Hebron and some people think we should be there and some people think that we should give it up. Similarly, people who think Jerusalem should be united will keep their opinion no matter what is found, and people who think the city should be divided will keep their opinion as well, and if they want to go visit David's palace they will go with a visa or a passport."
PSM at Georgetown -- Still refusing to condemn suicide bombing
The Georgetown paper writes about the upcoming Palestine Solidarity Movement conference:
Critics Step Up Protests, but PSM Still Coming to Campus
“The PSM is [lying] to Georgetown’s administration and the Georgetown community about its true agenda, which is to destroy a country that is friendly to the United States,” he said, referring to Israel.
Students for Justice in Palestine, the student group at Georgetown that is hosting the event, supports Palestinian self-determination, according to the group’s Web site. Neither SJP nor PSM have official positions advocating the destruction of Israel.
“There is always going to be a place for these Jewish citizens,” Muaddi said. “Jews also have the right to self-determination.”...
Gee, thanks, that's mighty kind. Perhaps the PSM will also protest against the PA's policy of administering the death penalty for anyone selling land to a Jew as well.
I'm thinking the statements of the invited speakers will put the lie to that.
But Muaddi declined to condemn suicide bombings, saying that it would not be right “to criticize Palestinians for taking part in violence when the Israeli forces are taking part in violence.”
Well there's violence, and then there's violence, isn't there?
Sending a Message
Many years ago, when I was still a mother's milk Democrat and card-carrying member of the ACLU, I actually voted Republican...once. Back then, seven-term incumbent Democrat Congressman Nicky "Pockets" Mavroules was running against an unknown upstart named Peter Torkildson.
Now, at the time, I'd have rather lost an appendage than vote "R," but sometimes you just have to send a message. Mavroules was mired in a corruption scandal that would eventually send him to the cooler, and I remember being quite outraged that the entrenched insiders would put this guy up for re-election once again. Didn't they know when it was time to quite?
Well, Congressmen are only in for two years, so I figured this was a perfect opportunity to hold my nose and send an anti-corruption message. After all, I could always vote him out again next time around. I could NOT vote for someone I knew to be corrupt.
And that's just what happened. Mavroules lost and Torkildson managed only to hold on to the seat for a term or two.
People vote to send messages all the time. People also have certain key issues that, almost no matter how much they agree with a particular candidate on everything else, if that person is pro/anti choice, pro/anti affirmative action, for or against welfare reform, immigration, higher or lower taxes...you get the picture...they won't, they can't, vote for them.
There is no question that Fatah was corrupt. To the core corrupt. Palestinians themselves are aware, though it was under-reported in the Western press, that the guys at the top were directing their corrupt fire-hoses filled with international money into their own deep pockets and, for instance, building what you never saw photos of -- neighborhoods full of what Stephanie Gutmann calls "McMansions," all the while complaining to the outside world about the horrors of grinding Palestinian poverty.
They, Fatah, deserved to get a message sent. They deserved to lose.
But one cannot help but be struck by what an overwhelming majority of Palestinian Arabs did NOT feel disqualied a person from receiving their vote.
A charter that calls for war with a neighbor, an ideology that turns their children into human bombs, that infects them with hate and holds events for dipping hands into red paint and calling it blood to recall a lynching, that elevates Jew hatred to a moral imperitive -- none of that disqualified Hamas from receiving a vote from a large number of Palestinian Arabs.
OK, so maybe this is just a message vote. Maybe large numbers of otherwise well meaning folks just couldn't bring themselves to vote for their corrupt overlords. But look at who they felt they could vote for. Barring any other option, I'm not sure it's possible to gild a choice of death over decadence.
Who knows? Perhaps between now and next time (if there is a next time), Palestinian society will shift sufficiently from Fear to Free such that viable alternatives are enabled to emerge and Hamas will be a one-term wonder as Fatah itself also fades into the sunset.
But that's a long time from now, and will only follow if we on the outside hold Palestinian Arabs responsible for their own choices. It's time to kick baby out of the nest, close up mom and dad's purse strings, and leave them responsible for their own choices.
Checking the Polls
Well, we all recall how unreliable the polls were in the last American Presidential election, but it sure seems things were even farther off in the PA. With thanks to an emailer who's done a bit research, let's take a spin around and see how "widely respected Palestinian pollster" Khalil Shikaki did:
No Palestinian party to win majority - projection
Poll: Fatah wins by narrow margin
Exasperated Palestinians question Authority (from Jan. 23)
Ouch. Lots of faulty prognostication spread widely. I wonder who the IDF relied on:
Red-faced IDF misread the 'street'
But after the shock wore off, senior officers began wondering how the IDF had totally failed to predict what appeared in retrospect to have been clear from the outset - and pointed their fingers in one direction, at Military Intelligence.
In line with the recent Palestinian polls, MI officers, as well as Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry officials, had for the past month predicted that Hamas would win somewhere between 30 percent to 40% of the vote, but that the ultimate winner would be Fatah...
OK, so what's this got to do with anything? We all know how unreliable polling is generally, although these results were particularly bad -- in the end, Hamas wound up with 76 seats to Fatah's 43. The networks and major papers crank out a slanted opinion any time they need fodder for a little editorial content. Well, here are some more poll results you may want to take with a grain of salt (they could vary either way, of course):
Study shows Palestinians more willing to compromise
The study, conducted by Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki for the US Institute of Peace (USIP), analyzes trends in Palestinian public opinion and finds it "is not an impediment to progress in the peace process."
According to Shikaki, who is considered one of the leading experts on Palestinian public opinion, the Palestinians are now more moderate than in the past and are willing to move forward on the basis of a solution which is accepted by most Israelis...
...The study shows that between 2000 and 2004 a majority of Palestinians supported terror attacks against Israelis, but this trend has changed and now 60% oppose the use of violence.
Shikaki claims the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza "only confirmed in the public's mind the belief that violence pays and in doing so rewarded the Islamists while making the PA more irrelevant than ever."
The study points to a possible positive outcome of negotiations. He finds a majority support the two-state solution, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and accepting the proposals outlined in previous documents. "If the PA does hold a referendum on a final-status agreement, the public will most likely support it," Shikaki concludes.
Let's not take that to the bank quite yet, shall we? Yet these results are already fodder for some nice, positive-sum editorializing:
Editorial: Turning Hamas from terror
Now I happen to agree with the obvious fact that a great measure of Hamas's support was as a protest to Fatah's corruption, for which we have an irresponsible international community to thank, but I'm not sure I'd go releasing any white doves based on these poll numbers quite yet.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
A Letter to the United Church of Christ
The Judeo-Christian Alliance's Dexter Van Zile takes the opportunity of Hamas's election to write a letter to the head of the UCC:
The failure of Protestants in the U.S. to speak honestly about problems in Arab and Muslim societies that inhibit the prospects for peace in the Middle East, coupled with an undeniable tendency to blame Israel – and only Israel – for the conflict’s existence raises troubling questions about Protestant attitudes toward Judaism as a religion and the Jews as a people. For one reason or another, mainline Protestant leaders in the U.S. are gripped by a tendency to think the worst about the Jewish State its policies and its motives, without taking into consideration the circumstances its leaders – and people – confront on a daily basis.
The recent outcome of the recent elections in the Palestinian Authority has prompted me to write. Hamas, an organization dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel, has won a large majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Hamas' victory, though no surprise, raises grave concerns about Israeli security, the welfare of Christians in Palestinian society and the prospects for peace in the Middle East...
A Letter to Georgetown
A reader CC's us on this letter to the Georgetown student paper. As she believes they will be unlikely to print it, I'll lay it out here:
Among the speakers announced for Duke was Charles E. Carlson, whose hatred for Jews borders on psychosis. He has also written articles glorifying suicide bombers, as long as they are murdering Jews:
“Imagine taking the risk of being caught and beaten to death while trying to sneak out of Gaza, a fenced prison; then to travel alone overland to some populated area carrying a homemade pipe bomb that you know can only be detonated within a few feet of an enemy if it is not to be wasted. Imagine knowing that if you detonate the bomb too soon or in the wrong place you will kill only yourself and your friends...”
Carlson is a hardcore anti-Semite, repeating long-discredited conspiracy theories claiming Jews run the money supply and are not, in fact, Jewish. For example:
“Are There any Zionist Judeo ‘Christians’ in your Town? Do they Act in Good Faith? Does the Truth have a place in their ‘Religion/Beliefs’? Or do they Serve the ‘Alleged Authorities’? The Rulers of Romans 13. You Know the Ashkenazim/Khazar Edomite ‘Jews.’ The Class A Stockholders of the Federal Reserve: [Link] - Share the Light of the Truth with the neo-conned ‘Judeo-Christians’ and lead them into the paths of righteousness.”
Continue reading "A Letter to Georgetown"
Hamas Without Veils
Here's Emanuele Ottolenghi with a take similar to Efraim Karsh's "cards on the table" view below.
Hamas Without Veils - No more hiding behind the PA.
The uniform message that the world gives Hamas should thus be: Take off your veil, and expose your true face for the entire world to see in the naked and transparent light of democracy.
Silver Lining...cards on the table
Efraim Karsh in the New Republic:
Silver Lining -- Why Hamas's Victory Isn't Such A Bad Thing
There is, of course, the risk that, in its dealings with the world community, Hamas will adopt its predecessor's duplicitous conduct so as to maintain the extraordinary level of international aid enjoyed by the Palestinians since the mid-1990s. This might well dupe naive do-gooders. Yet one hopes that Hamas's victory will cause the international community to pay closer attention to what the Palestinian authorities tell their own people and wider Arab constituencies. As for Israelis, yesterday's election results will have the virtue of creating clarity in their political debate. Now, as it weighs unilateral withdrawal and other policy options, Israel can at least do so without illusions.
Where left and right meet...
UC Irvine professor Mark LeVine advocates a full withdrawal and hands off policy toward the Middle East -- isolation behind the walls of Fortress America:
Boston Globe: A truce with Muslims
Worry not though, the other side also has responsibilities in this deal:
Yeah, that'll happen.
Peace, dude.
Iraqi WMD in Syria according to Iraqi Air Force General
I have studiously avoided the continuing mention of the many "Saddam's WMD went to Syria" rumours that have circulated since before the Iraq invasion. "Call me when you've got something more solid."
The story in this article does seem to deserve to be taken seriously, however.
NY Sun: Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says
The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.
"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."
Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."...
(H/T: Barcepundit who has more links on the story)
More Ben-Ami
Shlomo Ben-Ami is answering more questions at the Oxford University Press blog now that the election resluts are in (previous post: Ben-Ami: 'Abbas...is a quitter by nature').
"Hamas faces a terrible dilemma": Shlomo Ben-Ami on the Palestinian election results
Help, help, I'm being repressed! - With Google's help
In the same way Third World backwaters glom on to Western technology to threaten us with weapons (even the nuclear kind) that they could never develop on their own, Western corporations are now threatening the gains for international understanding that could be made through the expansion of the information superhighway by helping the world's largest repression-state keep its people under wraps:
Boston Globe: Censored searches - For China website, Google bows to Beijing's rules
Pajamas Media has a site dedicated to following blogosphere reaction on this issue. Lots of good links there: China Syndrome
Google Image Search "Tiananmen Square":
Hamas won't change its stripes
Hat tip to mal for pointing out this piece and calling it "excellent.' It is.
Ottawa Citizen: Hamas won't change its stripes by Barry Rubin
"Before I decide," I said, "tell me what you think about this issue."
"Oh," replied the diplomat, "we've already decided to deal with them."
"If you already have made up your minds," I answered, "why should I come to talk about it?"
Now, as the Financial Times says in a Jan. 18 article, the members of the European Union are preparing to do business with Hamas despite the fact that it is on their list of banned terrorist groups. Their rationale is "that heavy-handed actions by the EU could prove counterproductive, pushing Hamas further from the political mainstream."
Get it? In other words, if the EU is tough on Hamas it might become radical! Why it might even demand Israel's destruction, dispatch suicide bombers, and be anti-Semitic! (Irony watch: Yes, that is what they are already doing.)...
What Happens when a Terrorist becomes Head of State: Lessons from the Soviet Union
An excellent post at Augean Stables that reaches back into the days of the Red Terror to inform us of what we can expect to happen when the terrorists become the government:
What Happens when a Terrorist becomes Head of State: Lessons from the Soviet Union
As Gandhi said:
Hamas in Charge
In a Dewey beats Truman moment, the print editions of today's papers like the Boston Globe and Washington Times are reporting that Fatah narrowly beat Hamas yesterday. The truth, since updated in the internet versions of the story is, as we now know, exactly the opposite:
Violent clashes erupt between Hamas and Fatah supporters
The riots reportedly spread throughout Ramallah.
Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas in Syria, called Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and said that Hamas is ready for a political partnership with the defeated Fatah Party.
By early Thursday morning it had become clear that Hamas had shocked prognosticators by winning 75 parliament seats, including virtually all 66 seats in electoral districts...
Congratulations to all those who have made "Palestine" into an infantalized welfare state, to those in Europe who fought tooth and nail to prevent any level of responsibility from being applied or expected from Levantine Arabs, who couldn't call a terrorist a terrorist until it was far too late and who never heard an excuse they didn't pander to, and who put a society of murder and hatred up on the scales next to a society fighting for life and coexistence so they could come down in the middle and call themselves Just. It is you who set the carpet for the electoral victory of a terrorist group, and now we're all stuck with it.
The Jerusalem Post reminds us of the Martyr's Oath of Hamas:
The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times...
It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned...
The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kassam and his brethren the fighters, members of Muslim Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Muslim Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1968 and after...
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Sorry No Post
Had a busy day today, and anyway, I wanted to make sure Tom's post below stayed near the top.
And as tonight is a couch potato night -- two one hours of American Idol and an hour of Project Runway...I probably won't be posting again until tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful evening.
Be Seeing You!
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
When You Send A Child To War by Tom Glennon
On a day that saw a widely-linked piece that oh-so glibly advised us as to just why we should not support the troops, I'm privileged to present the antidote in this very personal piece from frequent guest contributor, Tom Glennon.
-Sol
WHEN YOU SEND A CHILD TO WAR
by Tom Glennon
I had long expected the call, but a chill went down me as I heard my youngest son Patrick's voice on the phone. "Dad, I got confirmation today. I have some weapons refresher and other location specific training in March, and will be deployed to the Middle East in late April or early May. If all goes as expected, I should get a ten day leave before I ship out."
Before I could ask, he volunteered that his deployment would be to Afghanistan, Iraq or Kuwait. As if he knew I was having trouble getting out a question, he continued that he did not have the specific dates yet, nor was he sure how long his deployment would last. Now I know, with frightening certainty, how my sister felt when her youngest son told her he was being deployed with his reserve unit to Afghanistan. A plethora of feelings all jumbled together, but with one overriding emotion. Fear. North Carolina and Iowa never seemed so far apart. I wanted to see his face, put my arm around his shoulder, tell him how proud I was, and that everything would be OK. But I couldn't.
Continue reading "When You Send A Child To War by Tom Glennon"Ben-Ami: 'Abbas...is a quitter by nature'
The folks at the Oxford University Press blog have five questions with former Israeli Foreign Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami on the upcoming elections.
I can't see that possibility at all. If Abbas resigns, which is perfectly possible because the man is a quitter by nature, then it will be another high ranking member of Fatah that will replace him...
Things I didn't know about American Communism
An interesting post and thread at Volokh by David Bernstein.
I think David's next read should be Red Star Over Hollywood.
Did you know Venona has a web site (at the NSA -- some secret agency they are)?
(via PJM)
Blog Awards Finals
Hi all. Thank you all for your support in the preliminary round of voting in the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards. This blog has made it to the finals in two categories and the support of you and your friends (every three days) would be appreciated.
Vote here for Best Politics and Current Affairs.
Thank you all again, and thank you for your continued readership.
An Affront to Cultural Diversity
On the same editorial page, the always unintentionally amusing H.D.S. Greenway is up in arms that Germans should be asking questions of those seeking citizenship in his piece, Muslim undesirables need not apply. Among the shocking questions the Germans are finally getting around to asking?
Other questions include:
''What's your opinion [of the practice] that parents force their children to marry? Do you believe that such marriages are compatible with human dignity?"
''Your daughter of full age . . . would like to dress like other German girls and women as well, but your husband is opposed to this. What would you do?"
''What is your position on the statement that a wife has to obey her husband and that he is allowed to beat her if she doesn't obey him? ''
''Do you consider it admissible that a man locks up his wife or his daughter at home to keep them from 'causing dishonor'?"
''You have heard of the assaults on September 11th, 2001 in New York and on March 11th 2004 in Madrid. In your eyes, were the perpetrators terrorists or freedom fighters? Explain your statement."
Quick, someone copy these down and make sure our own INS has them. Send them to the Human Resources Departments of the universities for that matter.
For Greenway and the rest of the head in the sand Left, such common-sense questions are a shocking affront to "cultural diversity." They are so convinced that we need only be concerned with a "tiny minority of extremists" and so worried that someone may be offended by asking perfectly reasonable questions, that we dare not ask to save our lives. I kid you not.
Update: Oh, I forgot to mention this correction which appears at the bottom of Greenway's column:
I didn't read his Jan. 10 column (I don't think). I'm not sure I want to.
Passive Hamas
Inside the paper is a slightly different story, as a couple of pieces make more of a mash of logic. Hussein Agha and Robert Malley (a Clinton adviser) write all about Hamas in Hamas steps into a complex landscape without actually saying very much, but this bit jumped out:
Got that? Violence "came to" Hamas, who becomes through this rhetorical trick something of a passive player. Violence was visited upon them, rather than they being the visitors. Note also how its targets were "soldiers and settlers," and only later it was civilians who were attacked -- as though settlers are something different than civilians, as though it is somehow OK to target them as they are in the same class as soldiers (not that soldiers are fair game, either, but they certainly count differently). Also note the implication that it was Israel who was being unreasonable for not accepting a draw-down in violence, not Hamas.
For this kind of explaining, the Globe pays money.
A sea of green
The picture above appears in large form above the fold on the front page of today's Boston Globe and accompanies a refreshingly clear-headed article that for once doesn't try to mask Hamas's real agenda.
Hamas hardens campaign rhetoric - Leaders praise jihad and renew calls to fight Israel
As Hamas surged in the polls in recent days to a virtual dead heat with the front-running Fatah party in tomorrow's elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, some Hamas leaders had floated more conciliatory ideas to attract broader support, including a new willingness to consider talking to Israel.
But leaders of Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, staged a counteroffensive, declaring that Hamas's belated plunge into the political arena proves that Fatah's more pragmatic approach to Israel is the right one.
So Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, struck back in the campaign's final days, playing to Hamas's political base in the destitute Gaza neighborhoods and refugee camps that have supplied many Hamas suicide attackers and that revere them as martyrs. Before crowds of thousands, he and other candidates went out of their way to deny they would ever give up their insistence on the destruction of Israel and the right to armed struggle...
Monday, January 23, 2006
Torture
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has four short videos of various attrocities and tortures committed under Saddam. Highly, highly disturbing and certainly not viewable by everyone. I kinda wondered why the hell I was watching at certain points, but then I think it's good to have a reminder once in awhile. This is what the Nazis, the Gulag and the Khmer Rouge were.
Kinda makes being lead around on a dog leash seem pretty silly.
(Via PJM)
'In the real 4th Reich you'll be the first to go...'
First it was playing the pussy, now it's doing the robot... I know you've seen this already, but really, doesn't it deserve as much play as possible? Must...see...video.
This is London: George sinks to new low
Now George Galloway is set to attract further derision after performing a dance routine on Celebrity Big Brother - in a tight-fitting, red leotard...
...His dance partner was, of course, Pete Burns. The transvestite lead singer of 1980s band Dead or Alive wore a blue leotard, even though he insisted he would not run from a burning house in it.
The pair were amusingly instructed to express 'the emotions of bewilderment when a small puppy won't come to you' through the medium of robotic dance. This was part of a task set for housemates to illustrate emotions through dance...
Via LGF where Charles also points out that one of the world's most prominent Dhimmi isn't making any new friends among his core constituents.
Update: The Political Teen has the video.
Divestment by the numbers
The Goal: Dismantle Israel.
The Means: All spelled out in a lengthy essay here: Al-Jazeerah: Divestment From Israel In Its Fifth Year: A History and Method for US and European Activists By Eyad Kishawi [The strikethrough of the text is part of the way through is annoying. I pasted it into a text editor to read.]
Of note: If you adopt any of the rhetoric, argument or means outlined in the essay, you either support The Goal or are being used by those who support it -- wittingly as a fellow-traveller or unwittingly -- as the essay itself points out:
Bear this in mind as you note the convergence in terminology across groups and web sites. It's not an accident. They plant the seed and the host carries and incubates.
As a side note: This Al-Jazeerah is sort of the "mentally challenged" version of the (challenged in its own way) big Arab broadcaster, AlJazeera. This one is -- surprise -- operated by Gaza-born Hassan A El-Najjar, an assistant professor in Social Sciences at Dalton State College in Georgia.
(H/T to Will Spotts for the pointer)
Islamist women redraw Palestinian debate on rights
Islamist women redraw Palestinian debate on rights
''That's what I am looking for, to sacrifice my life," said Awdeh, 18, an Islamic studies major at Al Najah University in Nablus and enthusiastic member of the youth wing of Hamas, the radical Islamic group.
Islamic women like Awdeh have redrawn the debate over women's rights in Palestinian society...
Islamic studies, eh? Must not be the peaceful co-existence brand I keep hearing about. I sure hope no one is interfering with the educational opportunities on offer in the West Bank. Say, you think any of those fine folks in the British University system with so much venom for Israelis voice much in the way of objection to the fact of Palestinian Arab universities being used as hate incubators?
Khalil Shikaki makes an appearance (see, this is why the background of these academics matter -- they're opinions are presented uncritically as expert):
On the one hand, he said, Palestinian society evolved to allow women a degree of political equality rare in the Arab world, because everyone -- women and children as well as men -- was drafted into the political and military struggle against Israel.
At the same time, the realities of occupation and violence also encouraged society to revert to its most traditional social networks: the family, the tribe, and mosque.
''You need more conservative social values to survive under occupation," Shikaki said. ''You don't have a government to protect your rights."...
On the contrary. "Under occupation" you have a civil authority tasked and responsible for protecting your rights. It's when the occupation ends and the anarchy takes over after people discover that snappy political slogans designed for Arab children and European dilettantes do not a government make -- that's when your rights are unprotected.
If we'd been a little less sensitive about this "horrors of occupation" nonsense, and cared a little less about charges of imperialism, perhaps we would have used a few more troops to put a clamp down on Iraq when we went in and saved us and the Iraqis a lot of lives and aggravation.
Spengler: Why the West will attack Iran
Hat tip to mal for the pointer to this Spengler piece. Interesting, but I'm not buying the conclusion. All the prognostication concerning Iran is starting to resemble all the psychic predictions that take place every New Year -- everyone takes a tidbit of logic and plausibility and walks it out to some logical-sounding conclusion. The fact is, no one knows, and the results are mostly hit or miss, but as events unfold, someone, somewhere, will be able to step forward and do an 'I told you so.'
I do not expect to wake up one morning any time soon and hear that Israel and the US bombed a wide range of targets in Iran last night. The politicos aren't anywhere near laying the public relations groundwork for it, and if they're smart, they'll stay back and force the Europeans to take the lead and go on record asking for help until the moment just absolutely cannot be put off any longer. That's my prognostication. Now watch, tomorrow I wake up and log on and...
Purimfest, 2006!
...In 23 days, the Jews will mark the Holocaust celebrations. This will be on January 27. They have this celebration. They claim that there were attempts to commit genocide against them. But I refer to the Bible itself: The Book of Esther, Chapter 9. They themselves say there was a woman named Esther, who was brought into the court of Xerxes, by a man called Mordechai the Jew. She was incited into killing around 170,000 Iranians. She killed many people in what is known today as the city of Susa. They celebrate this every year. They hold a two-day annual celebration of the killing of Iranians, a celebration of the genocide against the Iranians.
23-24 centuries ago, 170,000 constituted the population of an entire country. They were the ones who wanted to annihilate an entire country's population. They are the ones who commit genocides - not us.
If I am not for me...
Caroline Glick: ‘Cool’ anti-Semitism
`On Wednesday, it was reported that the Jordanian border police have adopted a new policy regarding the entry of Israeli tourists into the Hashemite Kingdom. Any Israeli trying to enter Jordan will be turned away at the border if he is wearing or carrying any Jewish religious paraphernalia. This anti-Semitic policy, the Jordanian authorities explain, stems from security concerns. Jews, after all, are prized targets for terrorists. By this reasoning, stopping people with overtly Jewish appearances, or who have Jewish ritual articles in their luggage, is a friendly gesture.
The Foreign Ministry is not pleased with this newest Jordanian move. Israeli officials are reportedly trying to reverse the new orders. The Israeli protest is ironic because the government itself uses similar justifications for its policy of prohibiting Jews from praying on the Temple Mount. The government claims that Jews are forbidden from worshipping at Judaism's holiest site because allowing Jewish worship entails security risks...
Hamas Remains Hamas
From a PMW report: Hamas Remains Hamas
The following is the transcript of part of the Hamas election ad:
You can view it and read more here.
Victory Over Code Pink
A small one, anyway. But each little bit counts. There's even a bonus John Murtha appearance. (via LGF)
Finished: The Other War
Last night I finished reading Stephanie Gutmann's, The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy. This book gets the highest level "strong buy" recommendation from the Solomonia Book Club. It should be given as a gift all across this great land (and Europe, too).
Gutmann is an unusual bird -- a graduate of the Columbia J School who seems to have kept her independence of thought and not gone native in the Kingdom of press-think. The book is an insider's look at just how badly the press covers Israel and also how it happens. Gutmann is a blog reader and her sensibility shows in the book. Blog fans will be familiar with the themes, but Gutmann fleshes it out with the nitty-gritty of a journalist's-eye view.
It's a real page-turner that both aggravates and explains. Highly recommended.
Hamas for the record
Hamas: State in '67 borders is temporary solution
Haniya emphasized that Hamas does not recognize the existence of the State of Israel and maintains its vision of establishing a Palestinian state throughout all of the area west of the Jordan River.
He also reiterated that there is no chance that Hamas would voluntarily disarm as long as Israel exists, Israel Radio reported.
(H/T: isirota1965)
Norway Boycott: Who Cares?
Not the Norwegians (not that there is any official boycott, but if there were...): Norway Post: No support of Israel boycott
Consumers in the stores, asked by the newspaper, also say they are not interested in boycotting Israeli produce, even if they have heard of the call for a boycott.
Consumer researcher Eivind Jacobsen says Norwegians do not have a tradition for boycotting.
He also points to the fact that most of the Norwegian imports from Israel consist of components for electronics and IT, not fruits and greens.
Right Wing News: Most & Least Desired Nominees
John Hawkins has the results posted from his latest blogger survey of most and least desired Republican presidential nominees. The results are interesting and, true to the name, pretty reflective of "right wing" opinion with John McCain -- someone who would do well in a final run, but not so well in primaries -- winning for least desired nominee and Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney finishing surprisingly high on the most desired list -- two guys who are fine fellows but guaranteed losers against any Democrat candidate with a personality more engaging than a tree stump. Will the Republicans learn nothing from the Dole candidacy?
Here's the full post: Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired 2008 Republican Nominee (2006 Edition)
Here were my choices, which I'll admit I didn't spend a lot of time agonizing over:
Most Desired:
Rudy Giuliani: (Former NYC mayor)
Condoleeza Rice: (Secretary of State, California)
John McCain: (Senator, Arizona)
Mitt Romney: (Massachusetts Governor)
Tom Tancredo: (Congressman, Colorado) [Probably not electable, but I like the guy.]
Least Desired:
Dick Cheney: (VP, Wyoming)
Newt Gingrich: (Former Speaker of the House, Georgia)
George Pataki: (Governor of New York)
Leaving the Plantation
I thought the reaction to Hillary Clinton's "plantation" comment was a little bit overblown, but if it provides a rif for Shelby Steele to work his stuff then there's a silver lining to it. Here's Steele:
Hillary's Plantation - Hillary Clinton reveals her fear of Condi Rice
But this Republican "weakness" has now begun to emerge as a great--if still largely potential--Republican advantage. Precisely because Republicans cannot easily pander to black grievance, they have no need to value blacks only for their sense of grievance. Unlike Democrats, they can celebrate what is positive and constructive in minority life without losing power. The dilemma for Democrats, liberals and the civil rights establishment is that they become redundant and lose power the instant blacks move beyond grievance and begin to succeed by dint of their own hard work. So they persecute such blacks, attack their credibility as blacks, just as they pander to blacks who define their political relationship to America through grievance. Republicans are generally freer of the political bigotry by which the left either panders to or persecutes black Americans...
(H/T: mal)
All of which gives me a chance to link to this old post, Re-thinking Affirmative Action, that contains a link to another Shelby Steele essay you should definitely catch if you missed it the first time around. The link in the old post is dead, but here's a live one: The age of white guilt: and the disappearance of the black individual
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Danish T-Shirts to Fund Terror
Europe continues to sink. Will this actually be allowed to happen, or will other Europeans do something about it? (H/T to the anonymous commenter)
BBC: Danish T-shirts 'to fund rebels'
The T-shirts have as logos the initials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The firm, Fighters and Lovers, says it will donate 5 euros (£3) for each T-shirt it sells.
The Colombian government has protested to the Danish authorities over the sale of the T-shirts.
"Financing terrorist groups is unacceptable and goes against all the international norms," Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco told private Caracol Radio on Friday.
"Yesterday our ambassador contacted the Danish government, we sent a protest note and have demanded an explanation."
The designers say Palestianian militant Leila Khaled and Colombian rebel leader Jacobo Arenas were among their inspirations.
Money from the sale of the T-shirts will help finance Farc radio stations in Colombia and a graphics studio in the Palestinian territories...
See also: YNet: T-shirt firm funds terror groups
Before anyone says, "Oh, it's just for a graphics studio" -- that means propaganda, that means money freed up to be spent elsewhere. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for a group like the PFLP to exist, and no reason for it to get money from anyone for anything.
Leila Khaled used to hijack airplanes for the PFLP. Here is a worshipful article on her that apparently appeared in The Guardian five years ago: 'I made the ring from a bullet and the pin of a hand grenade'
Update: Daniel in Brookline has pictures of the shirts.
USAID gives $2 million to campaign for Fatah
Well this is interesting. The US is spending $2 million to help the PA's Fatah to look better coming in to the elections in the hope that they can keep up appearances against Hamas. There are a lot of angles here. First it's rather laughable that Palestine is such a false construct that we actually have to do the public projects and PR for them directly because they can't do it themselves -- either due to corruption or desire. Second, we're propping up the best of a bad lot that still preaches incitement and works against our goals -- a pattern we've seen before where we believe if we just help them a little bit more, this time a leader who's for peace will emerge. Third, and certainly not the end of the discussion you could have with this, one will remember the furor over supposed American manipulation of Iraqi public opinion, well this is far more direct than that. Why isn't this a front page scandal in the Globe...a story of American manipulation of foreign electoral behavior?
Anyway, bad idea, immoral idea or necessary realpolitik, here's the story...
US program tries to boost Fatah - $2m foreign aid seeks to reduce vote for Hamas
The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the US Agency for International Development. But no US government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of American involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work.
US officials say their low profile is meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority receives public credit for a collection of small, popular projects and events to be unveiled before Palestinians select their first parliament in a decade. Internal documents outlining the program, designed with the help of a former US Army Special Forces officer who worked in postwar Afghanistan on democracy-building projects, describe the effort as ''a temporary paradigm shift" in the way the aid agency operates.
US and Palestinian officials say they fear the election, scheduled for Wednesday, will result in a large Hamas presence in the 132-seat legislature.
Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is at war with Israel and is classified by the US government as a terrorist organization. But its reputation for competence and accountability in providing social services has made it a stiff rival of the secular Fatah movement, which runs the Palestinian Authority and has long been the largest party in the Palestinian territories.
The plan's $2 million budget, although a tiny fraction of USAID's work here, is likely more than any Palestinian party will have spent by election day. A media consultant for Hamas said the organization would likely spend less than $1 million on its campaign.
Elements of the US-funded program include a street-cleaning campaign, distributing free food and water to Palestinians at border crossings, donating computers to community centers, and sponsoring a national youth soccer tournament. US officials are coordinating the program through Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader.
In recent days, Arabic-language papers have been filled with US-funded advertisements announcing the events in the name of the Palestinian Authority, which the public closely identifies with Fatah. Some of the events, like a US-financed tree-planting ceremony here in Ramallah that Abbas attended last week, have resembled Fatah rallies, with participants wearing the trademark black-and-white kaffiyehs emblazoned with the party logo...
Fighting the radicals in Indonesia
Jeff Jacoby writes about a serious propaganda effort to combat the radicals in Indonesia. Sounds like Indonesia makes leaders slightly differently than Malaysia does.
Wahid, the former president of Indonesia, is speaking to me by phone from his office in Jakarta. With him is C. Holland Taylor, an American entrepreneur who fell in love with Indonesian culture en route to making a fortune in the telecom industry. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Taylor created the LibForAll Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting Islamist extremism by promoting a culture of liberty and tolerance in the Muslim world; Wahid is the foundation's patron and senior adviser.
With 200 million residents, Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation, and Wahid -- popularly known as Gus Dur -- was not only its first democratically elected president but the longtime chairman of its largest Muslim organization, the 35 million-member Nadhlatul Ulama. A revered religious scholar who studied in Cairo and Baghdad, Wahid is a longtime champion of a moderate, progressive, and nonpolitical Islam. As a result, he has frequently clashed with militant fundamentalists whose growing influence, fueled by Arab/Wahhabi oil money, is undermining Indonesia's traditional religious pluralism...
Wonder how he feels about Israel and the Jews. That is the elephant in the room, after all.
Anti-Semitism's Presentable Cousin
Columnist George Jonas speaks to Judea Pearl and writes in the National Post:
Dr. Pearl, whose academic field is artificial intelligence, is the father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter abducted and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan. It happened four years ago, almost to the day. Last night, I talked with the late foreign correspondent's father on the phone.
Like his son, Dr. Pearl believes in dialogue. He runs the Daniel Pearl Foundation with the aim of carrying on his son's legacy, defined as "using music and words to help people better understand one another." This may sound a bit like the credo of a bleeding-heart liberal, but only until one realizes that for Dr. Pearl "dialogue" isn't a code word for displaying the white flag. For the UCLA scholar, "dialogue" means words of firm purpose, fighting words if necessary, not words as substitute for surrender...
Mainstream Conspiracy
Justin Martin writes in the Hartford Courant, Believing The Worst About Us:
...The discussion took a retrospective turn toward 9/11. The sisters first claimed that the attacks of September 2001 were a ruse and the work of Hollywood, while adding that, if in fact the attacks were real, it was not Arabs but Jews who carried them out...
...I was caught completely off guard by their statements because the four women are among the educated elite in one of the most progressive countries in the Middle East. Ninety percent of Jordanians are literate and the country has a strong network of universities as well as one of the freest media systems in the Middle East. I would expect to find denial of American pain in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, but not among the upper class in Jordan's capital...
I should like to know, before such people were, say, invited to come teach at universities here, or become naturalized citizens, whether anyone has such a conversation with them so that we could head off such opinions working their way into the mainstream here. I do not think that is unreasonable.
War Over the Libraries
To be honest, I barely ever find myself in a library anymore -- maybe a few times when my daughter was a little younger and we'd hang around on the kid's floor to get out of mumma's hair for awhile. Nevertheless, there's an information war still going on out there, perhaps more urgent in academic libraries than the local public, but still...
It's all part of who's story gets told...yours...or CAIR's?
Libraries: The New Mideast Battlefront
The pro-Israel group, called the Library Project, is on a mission — to counter negative portrayals of Jews and Israel. And its members believe that false, injurious messages are permeating U.S. libraries and ultimately shaping minds.
The reception they received made them more certain that the problems may be worse than they ever imagined: The group sparred with librarians for months over which, if any, DVDs the library would accept.
Such encounters are playing out in libraries across the nation. Library Project, based in Los Angeles, is one of two groups that have formed recently to spread a pro-Israel message. Over the past year and a half, it and the Boston-based Adopt A Library Project have helped place thousands of pro-Israel books, CDs and DVDs in branches around the nation.
Some libraries are receptive to their materials; others less so...
Dog Afloat
Changes to the citizenship test
Interesting changes are afoot for the American citizenship exam. Less rote -- more theory. Some of the objections brought forward by advocates actually make the changes a bit more appealing, like the concern that it will require better English skills, for instance.
A test of principles, not presidents
The federal government has decided that these questions -- five of the 100 that could appear on the US citizenship test -- are trivial. They say the exam, which is supposed to gauge how well immigrants understand and embrace US institutions, instead tests only their ability to memorize answers (white, 435, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Francis Scott Key, Form N-400).
So the Office of Citizenship is designing a new test, to be administered starting in 2008. It will ask aspiring citizens about what it means to be American, rather than quiz them on picayune facts. Officials say it is more important to ask immigrants about such principles as freedom of speech and religion, than for them to know trivia quiz items like how many amendments there are to the Constitution.
The proposed change is already triggering debate over what should be expected of immigrants who want to become citizens.
But the goal, says Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the Office of Citizenship at the Department of Homeland Security, is to design a process that will ultimately produce citizens who are more involved, more aware of their rights and responsibilities, and more American. ''We don't think the current test encourages civil learning and attachment to the country," he said...
How about: "Are Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups of terrorists, or freedom fighters?" If A) Welcome to America, if B) You too can work at a major American newspaper or university.
Buddies
I'd like to know what they were doing feeding a hamster to a snake. That's the job of white mice. Hamsters are our friends.
Hamster, snake best friends at Tokyo zoo
But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make friends with the furry rodent, according to keeper Kazuya Yamamoto. The pair have shared a cage since.
"I've never seen anything like it. Gohan sometimes even climbs onto Aochan to take a nap on his back," Yamamoto said.
Aochan, a 2-year-old male Japanese rat snake, eventually developed an appetite for frozen rodents but has so far shown no signs of gobbling up Gohan -- despite her name.
"We named her Gohan as a joke," Yamamoto chuckled. "But I don't think there's any danger. Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan's company very much."...
Haaretz: Israeli police 'trigger happy'
Pedro Zequete writing at Augean Stables invites us to comment on this Haaretz editorial calling for a high level investigation of police shootings of Israeli Arabs over the past several years, pronouncing the police "trigger happy."
I have several reactions:
1) How sad, and typical, that a newspaper has proclaimed the police guilty while at the same time asking them to start an investigation -- I'm assuming that 14 people shot dead in the past five years is even a lot. It doesn't sound like many, frankly.
2) Perhaps Arab Israelis are involved in more situations where shooting would be involved and it's typical of a Leftist press not to mention that.
3) As Pedro points out, it is an example of Israeli self-criticism similar to what happens in the American press. In that sense, it's a good thing, but as he asks, "...where is the equivalent of Haaretz in today’s Arab world?" As a rule it doesn't exist, except as the occassional exception.
4) BUT, as commenter Attila Girl astutely points out, it is itself a double standard. When there are allegations against Arabs or Muslims, the press is quick to cover or put out mitigating information for fear of a backlash. On the other hand, they bellow any perceived self-infraction without regard to the effect it will have on the "other side" who often sees self-criticism not as a strength, but as weakness, if they recognize it at all.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
The Germans Paid the Money...
...and the "hostage" kept some of it.
The story gets more and more bizarre.
Report: Osthoff Kept Part of Ransom Payment Herself
M. Goering -- Jew Lover
Nazi's relative turns Israel lover
If Field Marshall Hermann Goering, commander of the Nazi Air Force and Hitler's right-hand man, knew how his descendant Matias Goering was living today, he'd surely roll over in his grave.
Matias Goering , a distant relative of the senior Nazi (his great grandfather was Goering's grandfather's brother) wears a kippa and keeps kosher, observes Shabbat and wears an orange anti-disengagement bracelet reading 'Jews Don't Evict Jews'.
His family thinks he's crazy, but his innocence and his passion are convincing. Goering, who lives in Switzerland, is in Israel on his second visit in a year as part of his new love affair with the very same Jewish people his forbear did his best to exterminate.
"It is amazing for me that I am here with this entire heritage around me," said the 49-year-old Matias as his blue eyes scanned the Jerusalem coffee shop where we were chatting. "I feel at home here."...
Georgetown President Comes Out Against Divestment
How odd that this -- doing the right and obvious thing -- should be considered some sort of victory, but there it is. In spite of accepting a $20 million Saudi gift and hosting a Palestinian Solidarity Conference, Georgetown's President, at least, hasn't gone completely over the edge.
Pres. DeGioia's Statement on Divestment from Israel
It is clear there are a wide range of opinions on the conflict in the Middle East and that the appropriate way for Georgetown University to address the situation is through dialogue, research, and intellectual discovery. Some people have asserted that this situation is analogous to South Africa, where many universities, including Georgetown, did disinvest in the 1980's. I was deeply involved in these issues at the time. Speaking personally, I do not feel that the practice of apartheid is comparable to the complex set of issues involving many parties in the Middle East."
A New Beginning
Four of their kids were killed by US forces -- what the military calls "part of the tragedy of war." Now they have a new son and intend to live out their lives in America.
Somehow this country -- what some characterize as a fountainhead of terror and oppression -- keeps drawing people to it.
CNN: Parents of 4 kids killed in Iraq find hope
This was not the same man of a year ago.
We'd arrived to do our final interview with Daham and his wife Gufran, an Iraqi couple whose lives were forever changed during the first days of the Iraq war when their four children were killed.
We were there on this early January afternoon to capture the next stage of their lives. Their sad, stricken faces had softened and hope had returned. They'd had a son...
Friday, January 20, 2006
Dear Democrats: Listen to Molly
Molly Ivins thinks Hillary isn't liberal enough.
Bird Flu - Fault of the Jews
According to an Iranian news source: PA accuse Israel of spreading H5N1
PA's Environment Preservation Minister, Yusof Abu Safiyah, revealed to a press conference in Gaza Monday that the regime has buried 85 thousand of infected birds on January 9 in Beit Forik region, close to Nablus.
'Samples of the birds are tested and we wait for the result,' he said. 'The Palestinian Authority is on alert, especially noting that the disease has crept into Turkey,' he asdded.
In fact, an Israeli company appears to be quite successfully developing a bird flu vaccine: London U: Sambucol 99% effective against avian flu
Retroscreen Virology examined the effectiveness of Sambucol against the H5N1 strain of avian flu, and found that it was at least 99 per cent effective at reducing the virus...
And the Israelis are cooperating with (apparently other) Palestinian officials to head off a problem: Israel, PA prepare for bird flu Part 1, 2
ZOA threatens Brandeis with Boycott
The Zionist Organization of America is threatening a boycott of Brandeis over the hire of Khalil Shikaki (see: NY Sun: Concern Mounts Over Brandeis Professor's Ties to Islamic Jihad -- What were they thinking?) -- something I believe will not amount to anything, but will help put academia on notice that they need to be carefully mindful of the background of their scholars, and cautious about whom they apply the label "moderate" to -- especially when the alleged ties are to a group that murdered one of your own students.
Forward: Brandeis University Faces Threat Of Boycott Over Palestinian Scholar
The Zionist Organization of America issued a statement Tuesday calling on donors to rethink their financial support for Brandeis if the university fails to reconsider its appointment of Palestinian political scientist Khalil Shikaki. A well-known commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, Shikaki was recently made a senior fellow at the university's Crown Center for Middle East Studies.
The ZOA alleges that more than a decade ago, Shikaki had ties to the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad, of which his late brother was a leader. Critics of the appointment have pointed out that Islamic Jihad was responsible for the 1995 terrorist bombing in Israel that killed Brandeis alumnus Alisa Flatow...
[Somewhat sorta x-posted at Hub Politics]
ADL: Arab Media Review: Anti-Semitism and Other Trends July - December 2005
ADL: Arab Media Review: Anti-Semitism and Other Trends July - December 2005
Anti-Semitism is widespread throughout the Arab and Muslim world, manifested in many segments of society. The following report is a compilation of selected anti-Semitic expressions in the Arab and Muslim world in July-December 2005.
Meatballs 2 -- MAS Camp Rides Again
You'll remember (heck, it's still here on the front page) the kerfuffle over the Florida Presbyterian-run campground known as "Cedarkirk" and their hosting of a camp run by the Muslim American Society. Here are the relevant posts: Presbyterian Campground to Host Jihad Camp, Puff piece on the MAS, and Still not asking questions in Florida - Updated. Also see Joe Kaufman's piece that started it all: New Year's Jihad Retreat.
Well, worry not for the much-maligned and worried over Brother Mazen Mokhtar and the MAS (see Kaufman's piece for background on Mokhtar, and this piece by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross for background on the MAS), they're still going strong, this time with a weekend retreat planned for February 17-19, at a YMCA camp in Beckett, Massachusetts.
The rest of the guest-speaker list, if any, isn't listed. No blaming the Presbyterians this time.
Please note that nothing hurts the...what do you want to call it..."anti-Jihad" movement more than people going off like idiots and threatening anyone, so don't do it. I post this because it's a currently relevant topic and a demonstration of how groups with seriously questionable roots still operate openly and smoothly without any questions asked. Draw your own implications.
Sabeel - The Blog
Readers may be interested in a blog by what appears to be (the blogger's profile doesn't give much information) a volunteer at the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (see here at the Judeo-Christian Alliance for more info on Sabeel): Reflections from Sabeel, Jerusalem.
There are only three posts, left occasionally by what sounds like a...well-meaning...young (?) volunteer who may just yet be a bit naive to the world as yet. Here latest post, militarizing society, describes her fear at seeing so many Israelis carrying guns, and laments the Israeli militarization of their society.
The trouble with so many well-meaning people is that they travel somewhere, anywhere, with the best of intentions but have absolutely no idea what they're seeing and what they're dealing with so their descriptions, their framing of events, even their perceptions are always unreliable. It happens to everyone, from NGO volunteers to parachute journalists.
Comments are moderated and mine hasn't appeared yet though I left it yesterday. Here it is:
How did it get that way? A small country has been surrounded by others with declared genocidal intentions who have acted on those declarations from time to time, including prior to the State of Israel's first day in existence.
Thank God for those guns.
Enjoy your stay in Jerusalem. I hope you learn a lot.
I'm sure the tone of my comment was too abrupt, but perhaps the author could use some polite help contextualizing some of the things she may see and experience as she goes along.
The Clattering Train Rolls On
Joe Katzman has a great post at Winds of Change: Our Darkening Sky: Iran and the War
Go to the original post to see the included links.
Context
Eye on the UN has the context under which that 'Israel-less' map came into use:
UN Claims Map Erasing Israel Just "Historical"
The CHAIRMAN: I now call upon the representative of the South West Africa People's Organization.
Mr. GURIRAB (South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO)): I cannot miss this opportunity to note the map that has just been brought into the room, which shows Palestine as it existed in 1947, and the flag, which symbolizes the aspirations and legitimate demands of the Palestinian people. It is therefore my pleasure to be speaking at this point, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for directing the Secretariat to bring the flag and the map into the room...With the exception of the racists and Zionists, nobody questions the legitimacy of the oppressed peoples' using all means at their disposal, including revolutionary violence - that is, armed struggle... [I]t is my pleasant duty...to extend on this solemn International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People our revolutionary greetings and warm congratulations to the delegation of the Palestine liberation Organization and its Chairman, Comrade Arafat...for the intensification of the armed struggle against the common enemy...[T]hank you...for all the efforts that are being made to hasten the day of the final liberation of Palestine. That day is inevitable, whether it comes through the bullet or the ballot...
Mr. MUHTASSER (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) ...The Zionist entity is perpetrating barbarous crimes...these crimes even exceed the crimes committed by Nazi Germany...
Mr. ASHTAL (Democratic Yemen)... The resistance and the heroic revolution in Palestine are clear proof of the potential of the struggle represented by Arab resistance movements against the plans for aggression by imperialist and Zionist forces, aimed at aborting the armed struggle of our Arab brothers to recover hegemony over our destiny and future...
Yeah, I'd say the map oughta go.
(H/T: mal)
Pop Quiz: Name 'a nation that most people think is a big mistake'
AdamG of Universal Hub was driving home and listening to Boston radio one day and heard a call-in quiz: "Whoever could correctly identify "a nation that most people think is a big mistake" and the year of its founding would win a prize."
No prize here for those who can guess what the desired answer was.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Stormfront
Justis Reid Weiner on the stump
Two Christian publications known more generally for amplifying a dhimmi viewpoint concerning the condition of Christians in the PA (see the entry below for one example: Former PC(USA) moderator slanders, dodges) deserve credit for printing something different.
Here is a lengthy and important Q&A in Christianity Today: Q&A: Justus Reid Weiner on Palestinian Christians (via Dhimmi Watch) that's well worth your time, and here's Reid Weiner again with a shorter piece of his own in Presbyterian Outlook: Palestinian Christians suffer, die in PA territory.
Both pieces are worth checking out.
Bolton Sees 'Fundamental' Issue Over U.N.'s Map of Middle East
Bolton's still on the case.
Bolton Sees 'Fundamental' Issue Over U.N.'s Map of Middle East
After more than two weeks, the head of the U.N. political department, Ibrahim Gambari, answered a letter that Mr. Bolton addressed to Mr. Annan. In it, the ambassador expressed concerns that a photograph of the secretary-general standing under a map of pre-mandatory Palestine could imply tacit approval for erasing Israel from the map.
"I don't detect that we have an answer to [the] fundamental problem yet," Mr. Bolton told reporters yesterday, shortly after receiving Mr. Gambari's letter. "I'd like my original questions answered and I don't think this has happened," he said, adding, however, that he would like to study the letter further.
Mr. Bolton said he would continue the pressure. "The issue is how is it possible this kind of behavior persists of denying the existence of a member state of the United Nations," he said. "I have viewed the map question as a potential pivot point to change this anti-Israel culture."...
U.S. Holocaust Museum Comes Under Fire For Failing to Address Arab Anti-Semitism
The folks at Holocaust Museum Watch got themselves a nice write-up in the New York Sun following their panel discussion last night.
U.S. Holocaust Museum Comes Under Fire For Failing to Address Arab Anti-Semitism
"There is anti-Semitism emanating from parts of the Muslim world, and this is not a problem which should escape the concern of the Holocaust Museum," Mr. Engel said in a statement to The New York Sun. "I think it is time that the museum consider intensifying its focus on this continuing concern."
"It's unbelievable," the rabbi of the National Synagogue, Shmuel Herzfeld, told the Sun yesterday. "They won't talk about Egypt, about Syria, about Saudi Arabia - it's like the big elephant in the room."...
Former PC(USA) moderator slanders, dodges
Former Presbyterian Church (USA) moderator, Fahed Abu-Akel, is interviewed in the latest issue of Presbyterian Outlook. Readers may remember Abu-Akel as one of the front men in the PC(USA)'s divestment efforts (see entries here and here), he was also involved in a controversial incident at Wooster College in early 2004 when he recommended an anti-Semitic speaker, Samir Makhlouf, to give a speech at the college. Here is the story in The Layman Online: PCUSA's choice of anti-Semitic speaker prompts college apology
Readers will not be surprised that Abu-Akel's interview includes a number of canards and will also want to take note of the fact that, even when pressed in two questions to admit that Christians in the Middle East are suffering pressure not just from Israelis and Jews, but from their Muslim neighbors as well, he dodges (more like ignores) the questions.
The interview is here: Former moderator discusses Middle East situation, lead up to 2006 General Assembly
The dodge wasn't missed my one commenter:
An emailer also notes:
Trading Spouses
I haven't watched the show in awhile, but watching this clip makes me think I ought to go back to it.
Watching Georgetown
Bill Levenson has several posts of interest concerning the Palestinian Solidarity Movement con-fab being hosted at Georgetown. Georgetown is providing free housing in the dorms? Yeesh.
For the Record: Georgetown informed of PSM advocacy of suicide bombings
Internet harassment by Palestine Solidarity Movement: evidence sent to Georgetown University
Palestine Solidarity spokesman wants to "strap on a bomb and kill"
Honor Killing
I'm a couple days late in noting this important and surprisingly clear-headed article that appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe concerning the epidemic of honor killing going on in Europe. Let's pay attention to this issue before it becomes an epidemic here. Where are our women's rights groups speaking out about this issue not only in the West, but world-wide?
For Muslim women, a deadly defiance - 'Honor killings' on rise in Europe
In Neukoelln's largely immigrant Thomas Morus school, not far from the place where Hatun Surucu was murdered, students greeted news of her slaying with loud approval. Her brothers were hailed as local heroes.
The principal, Volker Steffans, was so disgusted by the display that he sent a letter to parents, to be read and signed, explaining what he had always regarded as obvious -- that girls should not be harassed for refusing to wear head scarves; that girls should not be attacked for wanting to pursue careers; that women should not be murdered for expecting tolerance and equality in a Western society.
''A murder happened nearby; a young woman was killed. She died because she wanted to live freely," Steffans said. ''But we are shocked by the fact that students approve of this murder and say [Surucu] deserved to die because she 'lived like a German.' "
Iranians Against Absurdity
Some Iranians (I'd hazard there are a lot of them -- mostly voiceless) are against Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial (via Norm):
The Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI), which includes parties representing Iranian Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, Azeri Turks and Turkmen, condemned the regime's manipulation of the Palestinian issue for its own political ends.
In the statement, the Congress argued that "the Iranian regime's internal and external policies are based on creating tension and confrontation, both inside and outside Iran. By taking an irresponsible position, President Ahmadinejad is trying to deflect public attention in Iran away from domestic economical, political and social crises. The government's foreign policy aims to position Iran as the sole defender of Palestinian people's right by allying with extremist groups to create tension in the Middle East and ultimately derail the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis. While the Palestinians and Israelis are seeking a permanent solution to their problems despite the Iranian regime's intervention, Iran's own minorities are denied the right to voice their demands.
"While we condemn the Iranian government regarding Holocaust and the destruction of Israel, we appeal to all democratic forces and human rights organisations to support the oppressed Iranian nationalities. . .towards the establishment of a secular, democratic and a federal state in Iran..."
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Project Runway Episode 7 Rant
Is there any purpose whatsoever to having challenges if the results are just going to be ignored? Clearly Santino's design was absurd and utterly unwearable. This is the first time I actually thought I could do a better design than one of the contestants. Interesting or not, Emmett at least designed a wearable garment.
Why don't they just say that Santino is going to be in the final three and he can skip straight to being the Rob Plotkin of this season until then -- help the others sew and stop wasting our time. One athlete may be better than another, but on any particular day someone else may be the better runner, boxer, karate man, high-jumper...why run the race if the "best man" is already determined?
Also, the manipulation with using the editing on the judges' comments is a little heavy-handed. As soon as Heidi said she could say auf wiedersehen to Santino, I knew he was staying.
Ptui on this.
Here, you be the judge. I have no quarrel with the Zulema's winning design. In the center is Emmett's design with which he was eliminated. Finally is Santino's junk, and believe me, the back is even worse.
These were supposed to be designed to be worn by Sasha Cohen, BTW.
Style Change
I welcome your feedback on a slight style change (actually, I always welcome constructive input on layout). I just decreased the size of the block-quoted text in order to try to cut down on the amount of scrolling readers have to do. This was the original size, but I had increased it because I did get one complaint about it, but that was also with a different color scheme. Please do tell me if any of you who are reading this prefer the larger text size. Another option is to put even more of the entry text into the extended entry, but I'm not sure which is worse -- asking them to scroll a little bit more to see what's new today, or expecting people to click to open the extended entry to continue reading even if there may not be enough on the main page to entice your mouse.
It's all about making the site as readable as possible in order to decrease the odds that I'm talking to myself on any particular post, so feedback on preferences is welcome. Don't be shy. I'm not going to jump to implement every change -- tastes are different -- but I can't consider it if you don't tell me. Much appreciated.
Update: As the only folks who've expressed a preference so far like the larger type, I've changed it back.
Father of Suicide Bombing Victim Deplores Award for "Paradise Now"
Received this through email. The original source is The Israel Project:
Yossi Zur, whose 16-year-son Asaf was killed by a suicide bomber in Haifa on March 5, 2003, wrote the following piece after learning that the Palestinian movie "Paradise Now" was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Monday.
An Award for Terror
By Yossi Zur
This week the Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film to the Palestinian movie "Paradise Now." The film follows the path taken by two young Palestinians from their decision to become suicide bombers, until the moment they board a Tel Aviv bus crowded with children.
"Paradise Now" is a very professional production, created with great care for detail. It is also an extremely dangerous piece of work, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but the whole world.
My son Asaf was almost 17 years old, an eleventh-grader studying computer sciences, when one day after school he boarded a bus in Israel to return home. On the way, a suicide bomber from Hebron, 21 years old and himself a computer sciences student in the Hebron Polytechnic, also boarded the bus and blew himself up. Of the 17 people killed, nine were schoolchildren aged 18 or younger. Asaf was killed on the spot.
Taking back the party
Speaking of small minorities of people with narrow agendas taking control of larger groups' agendas, take the case of the Green Party of the United States, recently of note for taking an anti-Israel, pro-Divestment line -- shades here of the British AUT academic boycott.
Enter Gary Acheatel, who's joined the Greens to push change from within. Now personally, I see a lot more wrong with the Greens than this one issue, but you've got to tip the hat to those who run in to the burning building to see what good they can do.
For Gary Acheatel of Ashland, however, that didn't go far enough. So, he joined the Green Party.
Socially and politically, it's easy to condemn and all too often convenient to define ourselves by what we are not. More challenging, and ultimately more rewarding, is to take action that affects change...
...Acheatel's new membership is a calculated move that seems unusual only on the surface. Dig just a bit deeper, and his unconventional reasoning sounds not only plausible but necessary...
...Employing a circle-within-a-circle strategy, Acheatel has now joined the Greens for one reason: to create a groundswell of member activism to reverse the party's anti-Israel resolution.
"There was a time when I admired much of what the Greens stood for," said Acheatel. "I was sympathetic to their position on the environment and gave them my vote in 2000. But their strong environmental positions are now tainted by their ridiculously biased divestment campaign."...
The web site for Acheatel's advocacy group is here: Advocates For Israel.
Gambian Girls Handpicked for Muslim Camps
Read this story and take note. Here's how the poison seeps in slowly but surely.
Gambian Girls Handpicked for Muslim Camps
Dozens of girls sing an Islamic song at this camp just outside Banjul.
They were picked from different neighborhoods of the capital city. Some of the brightest primary, high school and university students were among those selected.
"The main goal of this youth camp for females is to inculcate in the participants Islamic religious education," said Jaimaba Dibba, the camp's organizer. "Islam covers everything. It has left no stone unturned. Islam is a way of life. We want to inculcate in the youth who are going to be the leaders of tomorrow Islamic religious education."...
..."We're getting a lot of Gambians going to the Arab world for education - Islamic knowledge - and when they come back, they are always eager, actually, to introduce new things here, things that they've seen in the Arab world," he [Banjul journalist, Demba Jawo] said. "They have a feeling the girls, the young people in this country are actually being led astray and they feel that they should do something to reverse the trend. That is why they are coming up with all these things."
Mr. Jawo says some Gambians have expressed a concern the new Islamic teachers will help create friction between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
"Even though, the Gambians, the majority of the people in the Gambia are Muslims, but [before] there was very little distinction between Muslims and Christians when there is a Christian feast like Christmas or other Christian feasts everybody tended to join in the feast," explained Demba Jawo.
Now, he says, the girls at the camps are being told to ignore non-Muslim celebrations.
He warns Islamic hard-liners could turn from educators into a vocal and violent political force for the establishment of Islamic law in the Gambia.
Christians are Leaving the Middle East
It's not just Bethlehem, it's everywhere:
Christians are Leaving the Middle East
Demographers say the Christian population has declined noticeably in most Middle Eastern countries since the beginning of the 20th century. Fred Strickert, professor of religion at Wartburg College in Iowa, says Christians became a minority in the Middle East after the spread of Islam during the 7th Century, but they continued to play an important role, until the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
"In 1908, there was an internal revolution. They called it the Young Turks' revolt. A new group of people came into power and many of them were very biased against the Christians," says Professor Strickert. "They were attempting to draft them into the army and things like that. There was a mass migration from all places in the Middle East - Lebanon, Syria, and Jerusalem - and, by then, many of the Christians, partly because of Christian missionaries, had benefited from schools and hospitals, and sought better conditions in the West for economics. And so, there was a large migration at the very beginning of the 20th Century."...
More.
Hooked on a Feeling
Pigs fly moment -- EU suspends some Palestinian aid
EU suspends some Palestinian aid over budget
The rare sanction underscored intensified foreign donor scrutiny on the Palestinian Authority since Israel quit the Gaza Strip last year after 38 years of occupation. The impoverished territory is widely seen as a testing ground for statehood.
Visiting the region ahead of Palestinian legislative elections on Jan. 25, the EU commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said half of 70 million euros ($84 million) donated through the World Bank in November has not been released, and that the issue was under discussion...
Kennedy Quits
It's too rich, though I'm a little late, not to point out Senator Edward Kennedy's quitting his all male Harvard Owl Club as posted at Hub Politics. Kennedy's rank hypocrisy, his smear and guilt by association tactics have demonstrated that the spirit of Joseph McCarthy is very much alive, but he is no longer a Republican. Mrs. Alito's exit from the chamber was the "Have you no sence of decency?" moment of the 21st Century. We can only hope that it and the fact that the Democrats' performance in this confirmation seems only to have harmed themselves has the same long-term sea-change effect on the culture of the Senate that that famous moment did five decades ago.
Update: Only one?
The Great Train Razzia
Nidra Poller reports from the front:
One hundred drunk and disorderly “youths” from the “sensitive neighborhoods” outside of Marseille were let loose in a train carrying revelers from Nice to Lyon via Marseille. They vandalized the train, terrorized the passengers, stole from them, sexually assaulted several young women, made convincing death threats and, when all these wicked deeds were done, pulled the emergency brake and jumped the train on the outskirts of Marseille.
It took several days for the story to break. Apparently management of the state-owned SNCF railway system and local police officials thought they could avoid bad publicity by keeping the information to themselves. Even more surprising: no local journalist scooped the story, no eyewitnesses came forward to reveal it, the media blissfully announced that New Year’s Eve had been surprisingly calm -- only 425 cars torched and 13 gendarmes injured -- that the state of emergency was lifted...
(H/T: Andrew Bostom)
Interview with a Member of Knesset
Greg Margolin has an interview with Member of Knesset, Yuri Shtern, on the occassion of Shtern's recent visit to Boston, here: Exclusive JRTELEGRAPH Interview with Israeli MK Yuri Shtern. Learn about the daily life of a busy MK.
Translator in the middle
I have no interest in defending Lynne Stewart or Ramsey Clarke, but this story of the translator caught in the middle ought to give one pause. It's difficult to trust any narrative offered by the Washington Post these days, and whether the subject of the story, Mohammed Yousry, does himself believe in violence or not is irrelevant -- terrorists have no shortage of Western allies living vicariously through them -- but if this story is to be believed, it looks like the government has reached a bit here, or is in the process of punishing someone for not being cooperative (the sub-text not emphasized in the article), either way, this article bears a look.
Washington Post: Translator's Conviction Raises Legal Concerns
This was their conclusion:
"Yousry is not a practicing Muslim. He is not a fundamentalist," prosecutor Anthony Barkow acknowledged in his closing arguments to a jury in federal district court in Manhattan earlier this year. "Mohammed Yousry is not someone who supports or believes in the use of violence."
Still, the prosecutor persuaded the jury to convict Yousry of supporting terrorism. Yousry now awaits sentencing in March, when he could face 20 years in prison for translating a letter from imprisoned Muslim cleric Omar Abdel Rahman to Rahman's lawyer in Egypt...
In the Mail Bag: The Other War and Prayers for the Assassin
Stephanie Gutmann, the author of The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy was kind enough to send out a copy of her book and at 47 pages in it's already proving to be an excellent read -- much more of a page turner than one would expect. Readers will recognize the theme -- Israel's loss of the "message" war. I'm into the Muhammad al Dura chapter now and am looking forward to getting back to it.
I have also received an advance copy of Robert Ferrigno's new novel, Prayers for the Assassin which I'll put next on the reading list. According to the synopsis at the web site, the novel "asks what would happen if the terrorists win. In 2015, after the simultaneous suitcase-nuke attacks destroy New York and Washington, D.C. --- attacks blamed on the Israeli Mossad --- a civil war breaks out. An uneasy truce leaves the nation divided between an Islamic republic with its capital in Seattle, and the Christian Bible Belt in the old South." Sounds like a party! Looking forward to this one, too.
I have also received an email copy of Obaduah Shoher's, Samson Blinded: : A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict, but at 275 pages I'd have to print it out to read it -- I'll never get through it on a computer screen. It looks interesting as well...hmmm...
Finished: Red Star Over Hollywood
Just finished reading Ronald and Allis Radosh's book, Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With The Left -- a history of the Communists and their fellow travellers in the film industry. It was very enjoyable and interest-holding, and far more sober in tone than one might have expected from someone involved with FrontPage Magazine -- a web site I enjoy but who's enthusiasm for its viewpoint one must keep an eye on.
The Radoshes style is to take an era, then break it down by running through the role a select number of people played in that era and using their narrative to tell the story. The method works well enough.
I have heard it remarked that a large number of the far-left anti-Israel and antio-America sites and groups contain a remarkable overlap in terminology and membership. This comes as no surprise given the Leftist, Marxist roots of many of the principles. So it was with some interest that I read about the shout that echos on the web and in the peace marches today -- the Communist (now the Left/Islamist confluence) recognition that their real message is unpalatable, so instead they establish front groups with agendas they establish and who's steering they control in order to ensnare fellow travellers and well-meaning liberals whom they consider useful idiots. It was true then, it's true now.
Yes, there really were Communists in Hollywood who hated America and took their cues from Joseph Stalin. Yes, they had their own blacklist going before the House Un-American Activities Committee came along. It was a blacklist for those who didn't toe their ideological line or who had the bad judgement to leave the fold -- something they used the unions they controlled to enforce. Remember, these are people who believed in a one-party situation with acceptable thought dictated from above -- acceptable thought in politics and its expression in art. To grant them sincerity as champions of free expression in the face of a fascistic state belies credulity.
The picture painted by Red Star Over Hollywood is a nuanced view of the time. The HUAC (and most of the events in the book take place before the coming of Joe McCarthy) is painted neither as perfectly right, nor perfectly wrong, just as the records of those called before it are given in a full three-dimensions. As Dalton Trumbo, one of those Stalinists who eventually began to have second thoughts put it, there were "only victims" of the time.
In fact, my mention of Trumbo leads me to also mention one of the people in the book who does emerge in her pages, much to my enjoyment, as a hero -- one of my favorite actresses, Olivia de Havilland (still living in France where she has no-doubt been kidnapped to). Scheduled to give a speech in 1946 on behalf of the Communist front group, HICCASP (Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions) and written by Trumbo, de Havilland instead substituted her own speech, and it became one of the first open breaking points between the Communists and the genuine liberals:
De Havilland substitued a speech with an almost opposite point of view, underlining the growing differences between the genuine liberals and the Hollywood Communists. From 1932 to 1945, she told her audience, a "coalition of all liberal and progressive forces" made up a sizable majority of the New Deal supporters. But in the postwar era, "reactionary forces have driven a wedge into the liberal coalition" and were trying to make it appear "that the great liberal movement is controlled by those who are more interested in taking orders from Moscow and following the so-called Party line than they are interested in making democracy work." To prove otherwise, liberals would have to distance themselves openly from both Moscow and American Communists.
"We believe in democracy," she told the crowd, "and not in Communism." She reminded the audience that when the CPUSA [Communist Party USA] had endorsed Roosevelt for re-election in 1944, he repudiated their endorsement. Today, she acknowledged, Communists "frequently join liberal organizations. That is their right. But it is also our right to see that they do not control us. Or guide us...or represent us."
Trumbo exploded in a fit of rage when he heard what De Havilland had done...
Today's genuine liberals and friends of democracy would be well served taking note of Olivia de Havilland's example.
If this sounds like interesting history, here's a link to the book: Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance With The Left
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Slandering the Kurds
Soooo interesting to watch the Left do to someone else what's been done to the Israelis. Sometimes it happens right before your eyes. What adds a touch of interest is the fact that the history here is even more fresh, so in some ways the twisting is even more perverse. Harry's got the scoop with The 'oppressor' Kurds:
Of course as we know the Kurds lost that 'favoured oppressed nation status' when they committed the unforgivable crime of failing to oppose the overthrowing of a fascist dictator who had gassed and massacred their women and children. Suddenly the Kurds were something of an embarassment for the anti-war left. Indeed some even felt betrayed by the Kurds' support for their own liberation.
That process of transformation of the status of the Kurds in the eyes of the Stopper left is completed by one paragraph from Tariq Ali in the Guardian today...
Don't miss Harry's commentary.
(via PJM)
MEMRI TV: Iran TV Discussion on the Myth of the Gas Chambers and the Truth of Protocols of the Elders of Zion; 'The Only Solution for This Cancerous Tumor [Israel] is Surgery'
It's like a TV talk show, but different. Sort of "other planet" different. But not that different, at least not for Planet Iran. Today's guests include "Iqbal Siddiqu, co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought and editor-in-chief of its magazine Crescent International [who comes to us via satellite from London, England], and political analysts Dr. Majid Goudarzi and Dr. Majid Safataj."
The viewer is in store for a stimulating discussion including Zionist control of...everything...to the given accuracy of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, to a boffo round of Holocaust denial. And what genocide discussion would be complete without a call for genocide -- in this case (surprise!) a call for Israel's...well, let's let Dr. Goudarzi explain it in his own words: "I hope that one day humanity will reach the conclusion that the only solution for this cancerous tumor is surgery."
Update: Marathon Pundit notes this (sort of...ahem) related item: The Iranian regime and sexual relations with chickens
What's a hero?
This is a day late, of course, but I just surfed by this post and thought it worth linking at a blog slightly off the beaten track 'round here: MLK: The Greatest American
May we long remember and honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., for whatever his flaws, he more than anyone else asked America to live up to her own promises. Happy Birthday, Reverend.
Pipes: The Pope is Wrong
Daniel Pipes thinks Pope Benedict has it wrong in his thinking over whether Islam can or cannot be reformed: The Pope and the Koran
Taha argued that specific Koranic rulings applied only to Medina, not to other times and places. He hoped modern-day Muslims would set these aside and live by the general principles delivered at Mecca. Were Taha's ideas accepted, most of the Shari'a would disappear, including outdated provisions concerning warfare, theft, and women. Muslims could then more readily modernize.
Even without accepting a grand schema such as Taha proposed, Muslims are already making small moves in the same direction. Islamic courts in reactionary Iran, for example, have broken with Islamic tradition and now permit women the right to sue for divorce and grant a murdered Christian equal recompense with that of a murdered Muslim.
As this suggests, Islam is not stuck. But huge efforts are needed to get it moving again.
NY Sun: Concern Mounts Over Brandeis Professor's Ties to Islamic Jihad -- What were they thinking?
Khalil Shikaki was last seen on this blog with egg on his face (literally) in Ramallah after releasing the results of a poll who's results displeased the mob. Read carefully the allegations presented in this new article concerning this 'moderate's' potential ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. To me it comes as no surprise that Palestinian Arab scholars, coming from a society permeated by hate and terror, would be half a degree of separation (if that) from terrorist groups. How could it be any other way? Perhaps groups like CAIR or the Islamic Society of Boston who are scandalized by the idea of Muslims or new arrivals from the Middle East being under suspicion could turn their attention to cleaning up the Middle Eastern societies (and Palestinian Arab society particularly) who's natures rightfully give so many Americans such pause. Step three in Martin Luther King's prescription for nonviolent campaigns would be very useful here: Self-purification. Silence, stonewall, whitewash and legalistic posturing are not going to be enough forever. Some of us are a bit less credulous than the average St. Petersburg Times reporter.
NY Sun: Concern Mounts Over Brandeis Professor's Ties to Islamic Jihad:
Mr. Shikaki is, among many scholarly affiliations, the founder and director of a prominent polling institute, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and last year was named a scholar at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Among Palestinian Islamic Jihad's more notorious acts was an April 1995 bombing in Israel that killed a Brandeis student, Alisa Flatow.
Continue reading "NY Sun: Concern Mounts Over Brandeis Professor's Ties to Islamic Jihad -- What were they thinking?"
Video Interview with Sheik Palazzi
You may be interested to watch this remarkable video of moderate Italian Muslim Sheik Palazzi's recent visit to the Jewish community of Hebron. Don't be put off by the French text, most of the audio is in English. He seems a jolly fellow.
Infiltration by the book -- CAIR's after Cal
Now comes what may be the greatest threat: radical Islam, whose "agents" may have established a base more solid and more dangerous than anything we've encountered before. The good news is they speak openly of their intentions. The bad news is that many of us are not taking them seriously.
Last week at the beginning of the London trial of radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri, evidence was presented detailing how he encouraged his followers at the Finsbury Park mosque to kill non-Muslims...
Jewish World Review Editor, Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, writes to tell subscribers that -- surprise! -- CAIR isn't happy with Mr. Cal Thomas:
At the very least — and we're NOT making this up! — they want Cal moved to the religion page, we're told.
In other words, A BELIEVING CHRISTIAN WHO TAKES STRONG MORAL STANDS and isn't afraid to tell it like it is, doesn't deserve to have a loud voice in South Florida’s fastest-growing major daily newspaper.
KINGSLEY GUY is the editorial page editor. A phone call — which given today's rates should be only a few cents — will likely have a stronger impact. He can be reached at (954) 356-4616
To send an e-mail, please CLICK HERE.
In either case, PLEASE BE POLITE! Rudeness accomplishes NOTHING!
Please...spread the word.
Still not asking questions in Florida - Updated
You may remember this story, Presbyterian Campground to Host Jihad Camp, and the follow-up in the press discussed in my post Puff piece on the MAS in which we examine the inability of St. Petersburg Times reporter S.I. Rosenbaum to ask serious questions, or indeed, any questions, of Muslim American Society member Chantal Carnes -- previously quoted elsewhere praising the Muslim Brotherhood and Hassan al-Banna.
Well S.I. Rosenbaum is back, and still not asking inconvenient questions of people who are members of terror-group spin-offs. Instead, she's attacking the real enemies of American freedom -- bloggers:
Robert Spencer, named in the article, has a lengthy response, here: A notch above child molester, as does the blog Western Resistance, here: Florida: Response to S.I. Rosenbaum's Article in the St. Petersburg Times
Here's a web site Rosenbaum may be interested in taking a look at. In the article, Iran Notches Up Anti-Israel Campaign:
Those remarks prompted a global outpouring of condemnation, and it wasn't clear who would be willing to attend an Iranian-sponsored Holocaust conference.
Late last year, however, the leader of Egypt's main Islamic opposition group joined Ahmadinejad in characterizing the Holocaust as a "myth" and lambasted Western governments for criticizing those who dispute the Jewish genocide happened.
"Western democracies have slammed all those who don't see eye to eye with the Zionists regarding the myth of the Holocaust," Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef wrote on the group's Web site...
Now personally, I'd like some questions asked of people who think the Muslim Brotherhood is a-OK, but then, maybe Mr. Akef isn't considered a blogger, so his hate isn't noteworthy.
Update: Truth in Love reports that PC(USA) officialdom is doing the same "head in the sand" act through the Presbyterian News Service: Circling the Cedarkirk Wagons Will Spotts ends up asking himself a disturbing question:
Another Russian Synagogue Attacked
JTA: Synagogue attacked in Russia
The man, identified as a 19-year-old student of a local medical college, burst into the shul last Friday evening and demanded a meeting with the rabbi.
The man appeared to be intoxicated and wielded a broken glass bottle. When synagogue security tried to stop him he escaped and attempted to strike people inside the synagogue with his weapon. The attacker was wrestled down and handed over to police.
No injuries were reported in the incident.
According to local police, the man said he was inspired to act by the Jan. 11 stabbing incident at a Moscow synagogue, RIA-Novosti reported.
Why God chose the Jews
An opportunity for familiar doggerel:
How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews.
--
But not so odd
As those who choose
A Jewish God
But spurn the Jews.
--
Not odd
Of God.
Goyim
Annoy 'im.
--
Not strange
Nor odd
The Jews
Chose God.
This op-ed by Andrew Klavan in the LA Times is excellent and worth reading in full: Why God chose the Jews
All bigotry is wrong, of course, but there's something about this particular form of prejudice that is weirdly reliable as a sign of deeper wickedness. Perhaps it's because the Jews contributed so much to humanity's moral code that to hate them as a race is to despise the restraints of morality itself.
Whatever the reason, true, virulent anti-Semitism is such a good indicator of the presence of evil that I'm tempted to believe that when God made the Jews his chosen people, this is what he chose them for: to be a sort of Villainy Early Detection System for everyone else.
Unfortunately, in his infinite love for his creation, I suspect the Big Guy may have overestimated our intelligence. Maybe he thought that after Hitler we'd just, you know, like, get it. Instead, we still see apparently intelligent people appeasing, making excuses for and even embracing the sorts of stinkers who ought to set off the Big Alarm...
(H/T: Ben-David)
Chávez and Ahmadinejad - Soulmates
Here is a not to be missed article in yesterday's OpinionJournal: The Tehran-Caracas Axis - Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are more than just pen pals.
The warmth and moral support between Ahmadinejad and Chávez is very public. The two tyrants are a lot more than just pen pals. Venezuela has made it clear that it backs Iran's nuclear ambitions and embraces the mullahs' hateful anti-Semitism. What remains more speculative is just how far along Iran is in putting down roots in Venezuela.
In September, when the International Atomic Energy Agency offered a resolution condemning Iran for its "many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply" with its treaty commitments, Venezuela was the only country that voted "no." Ahmadinejad congratulated the Venezuelan government, calling the vote "brave and judicious."...
The issues brought up in the entry below, Chavez and Liberation Theology, are relevant again as you'll see when you read.
Always interesting to see how dictatorship is always destructive. Venezuela is swimming in oil, yet its infrastructure is literally crumbling and they feel themselves drawn to common cause with some of the world's worst regimes.
(H/T: isirota1965)
Does Saudi money corrupt absolutely?
Rachel Ehrenfeld: Saudi interest in America
On Sept. 28, 2001, after the attacks on the United States, Osama bin Laden called for financial jihad against the United States, and on Dec. 27, 2001, he called on jihadists "to look for [and strike] the key pillars of the U.S. economy." Although now the Saudis claim bin Laden is their enemy, many of them continue to follow his agenda.
Religious and ideological support has been also provided by Hussein Shihata, a leading Sunni scholar of Islamic Economy at Cairo's al-Azhar University. Mr. Shihata's July 10, 2002, fatwa says: "We do not use the term 'economic jihad' as a mere motto or a resounding slogan with no action. Rather, we mean by it a practical jihad that requires action to turn it into an effective and concrete reality. The aim behind that is to benefit all Muslims and to challenge the aggression staged by the U.S. and Jews against Islam and Muslims."
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who claims to abhor bin Laden, seems nevertheless eager to follow his agenda. In an interview with Arab News in May 2002, the prince said that if the Arabs "unite through economic interests," they would achieve influence over the U.S. decision-makers. Since government sources estimate Saudi holdings in the United States at $400 billion to $800 billion, the matter warrants public attention...
IDF kills Hamas head in Tul Karm
IDF kills Hamas head in Tul Karm
One soldier was lightly wounded from shrapnel and was evacuated to the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba for treatment.
Hamas officials said their military wing will respond to the leader's killing, but Palestinian Authority sources estimate the organization will not act on its threat prior to the general elections, set to take place on January 25.
During the operation Monday night, the forces deployed around a building in which Iada, who was on the IDF's most wanted list, was staying. At one point Iada attempted to escape the house, and shot at the troops, who responded with fire...
That January date is a bit sticky, isn't it? After that, Hamas is likely to be in the government, and then Hamas "retaliation" takes on a bit of a new dimension.
Bolton
Yes, I know this has been widely circulated already, but one more can't hurt can it. May I take this opportunity to point out to my still knee-jerk Democrat voting brethren what a shame it is that this man had to be a recess appointment because of the smears of members of that party -- down to the allegation that he might not a been a nice fella' at some point in time to some underling somewhere, and because of that we might not have had a John Bolton in the UN? If that doesn't describe you, good, but please remember that Bush's appointment of Bolton was held out as yet another example of what an arrogant jerk he (Bush) is. Sometime we better remember to thank that arrogant jerk.
Bolton Scores U.N. on Stance Toward Israel
Mr. Bolton's January 3 letter, which was seen yesterday by The New York Sun, is a response to a November 29 event celebrating an annual "International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People." At the event, which was attended by Mr. Annan and other top diplomats, a map that "erases the state of Israel," as Mr. Bolton wrote, was displayed.
"Given that we now have a world leader pursuing nuclear weapons who is calling for the state of Israel to be wiped off the map, the issue has even greater salience," Mr. Bolton wrote...
Hamas lays out their agenda
While one can be critical of the pressures the Bush Administration has placed on the Israelis in recent weeks, their statements concerning cooperation with the PA should Hamas be involved carry more weight than those of the EU since our administration has a House and Senate -- a sort of government 'grass-roots' -- keeping the pressure on them, unlike EU leadership.
US to cut funding if Hamas elected
Security sources in the American government warned that the US will cut funding to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas representatives would be elected to official positions in the new government that was expected to form.
According to Israel Radio, the warning came following a meeting between PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and US representatives David Welch and Elliot Abrams...
And don't overlook this:
and this:
"To all those who claim that Hamas has abandoned the resistance option because of its participation in the election, we say that we remain committed to the resistance," he declared.
"Israel is an enemy, not a partner or a friend or a neighbor. We won't negotiate with them and this is our final position. Palestine, all of Palestine, belongs to the Muslims and the Arabs and no one has the right to give up one inch of its land."
Fathi Hamad, a Hamas candidate from the Gaza Strip, said his movement would continue to develop its armed wing, Izzaddin al-Kassam, by recruiting more members and manufacturing more rockets and bombs.
The fiery statements of the Hamas leaders come against a backdrop of reports suggesting that Hamas's victory in the parliamentary elections could have a moderating effect on the movement.
Good luck with that.
Austrians sell 'super' rifles to Iranians
Telegraph: Fury over Austrian 'super' rifles for Iranians
HS50 Steyr-Mannlicher .50 calibre rifles can pierce body armour from up to a mile, shoot down helicopters and penetrate Humvee troop carriers that have not been fully reinforced.
The weapons are highly accurate and fire a round called an armour-piercing incendiary, a bullet that the Iranians manufacture.
There are fears in the Pentagon that some will reach insurgents fighting allied forces in Iraq.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard is suspected of passing on bomb-making technology to Iraqi terrorists responsible for infra-red bombs that have killed 10 British soldiers.
A Foreign Office spokesman said there were "serious concerns" over the rifle sale and London had protested to Vienna...
This is probably one of the least things other countries are doing to help Iran, but one of the most likely to be turned against us in the near term.
Islamists win to force Palestinian ties rethink — Spanish FM
Yeah, right. The Europeans who resisted putting Hamas on the terror list in the first place will be only too happy to remove them at the earliest opportunity.
Islamists win to force Palestinian ties rethink — Spanish FM
Asked about how a Hamas victory would impact on future European financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, Moratinos told reporters in Ramallah that "the necessary evaluations" would have to be made and "a decision would be taken" with regard to funding.
But he, nonetheless, defended Hamas' right to run in the parliamentary poll and said Europe would honour the outcome.
"We will respect the result of these democratic Palestinian elections in which we believe all political groups should participate," said Moratinos who is a former European Union envoy to the region.
Moratinos' words echoed comments made last month by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana who said the 25-nation bloc would find it very difficult to channel funding to a group which appears on the European Union's terrorist blacklist.
"If Hamas wins, it will be very difficult for the European Union to continue offering help and money to the Palestinian National Authority," he said...
"Anyone got an eraser?" Moratinos was heard to ask later.
William Tate Responds
William Tate, author of the American Thinker piece, Under Clinton, NY Times called surveillance "a necessity", has responded to Cathy Young's criticisms presented in her blog entry, Playing "gotcha" with the Grey Lady. I found this through my referrer logs as my reaction to Young's entry, 'Playing "gotcha" with the Grey Lady' and a Tangent on Blog Editorial Standards, is mentioned in passing.
Got all that?
Tate's latest entry in the exchange is here: NY Times Hypocrisy: The Empire Strikes Back
Monday, January 16, 2006
Happy MLK Day
PowerLine has a post featuring quotes from the Letter from a Birmingham Jail that's well worth a click: The Prophetic Voice.
It's worth taking the time to read the whole letter, here, and the text to the 'I Have a Dream' speech here. There is also a 10-minute video of the speech available on this page (scroll down to 'eTexts/RealTime Videos of King's Speeches and Writings'), although the bandwidth appears to be getting hammered at the moment.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Is this familiar photograph real?
Happy in Afghanistan
Big poll numbers for the American military in Afghanistan:
Afghan Poll: Big Support for US Military Presence
A new public opinion survey says most Afghans have a favorable view of U.S.-led forces providing security in the country as well as the fledging democratic government of President Hamid Karzai.
Results of the poll were released Wednesday by the private and nonpartisan Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
Mr. Karzai has a 93 percent approval rating and 83 percent of those surveyed think their country is headed in the right direction. And five out of six Afghans view the U.S. military presence as positive...
But they're supposed to resent the occupaaaation...
Bar-Ilan to Host International Conference on Academic Freedom and the Politics of Boycotts
Bar-Ilan University in Israel, one of the targets of the relatively recently overturned boycott by the British Association of University Teachers (you know, the folks who were going to defend academic freedom by boycotting other academics) will be hosting an international conference on the subject. It appears to me that the targeting of academics in the manner that was done by the AUR has, if anything, increased their stature. Here is a link to the announcement:
Bar-Ilan to Host International Conference Analyzing Academic Boycott Attempts
Canadian Politics
Lots of great commentary on the Canadian election campaign at Peaktalk. Just keep scolling. And don't miss these Liberal attack ads: here and here. They even get my blood boiling.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
DNA speaks truth to power
DNA Study Traces Ashkenazi Heritage to Four Women
Those women apparently lived somewhere in Europe within the last 2,000 years, but not necessarily in the same place or even the same century, said lead author Dr. Doron Behar of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.
He did the work with Karl Skorecki of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and others.
Each woman left a genetic signature that shows up in their descendants today, he and colleagues say in a report published online by the American Journal of Human Genetics. Together, their four signatures appear in about 40% of Ashkenazi Jews, while being virtually absent in non-Jews and found only rarely in Jews of non-Ashkenazi origin, the researchers said.
They said the total Ashkenazi population is estimated at around 8 million people. The estimated world Jewish population is about 13 million.
Ashkenazi Jews are a group with mainly central and eastern European ancestry. Ultimately, though, they can be traced back to Jews who migrated from Israel to Italy in the first and second centuries, Mr. Behar said. Eventually this group moved to Eastern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and expanded greatly, reaching about 10 million just before World War II, he said.
The study involved mitochondrial DNA, called mtDNA, which is passed only through the mother. A woman can pass her mtDNA to grandchildren only by having daughters. So mtDNA is "the perfect tool to trace maternal lineages," Mr. Behar said Thursday in a telephone interview...
Impression: This is an interesting article on a subject that never fails to fascinate (the business of tracking down human ancestry -- wouldn't it be fun to have a picture book...'Here's your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother, your great, great-grandmother, etc...'), but I caution against taking these results too far. As I have mentioned on this blog before, I am less than enamored with genetic proofs for current political claims. "Peoplehood" and the connection to a historical legacy are far more complex concepts than any mitochondrial test can settle. I will admit, though, that I enjoy this little wrench thrown into the anti-Semitic race-theory du jour -- that Ashkenazi Jews aren't real Jews and have no connection with the levant because they actually all decended from a tribe called the Kazars who converted en masse and never lived in the Middle East. I won't belabor the issue by pointing out all the logical problems with this theory, but it boils down to a big "So What?" and amounts to a racist argument that appeals mostly to (and is really designed for the consumption of) racists.
Not only that, but it is nice to have the mitochondria speaking and proving out the traditional historical narrative.
A Worrying Time
Indeed it is.
John Keegan in the Telegraph:
We should be very worried about Iran
For if the West is considering military action, so are the ayatollahs. They are the sponsors of much of the insurgency in Iraq and suppliers of the insurgents' weapons. They also have intimate links with most of the world's worst terrorist organisations, including al-Qa'eda and Hezbollah. Iranians may well be the missing link for which MI5 is searching behind the July 7 bombings in London.
Moreover, while Iran has its own armoury of medium-range missiles suitable for nuclear delivery, the ayatollahs are also known to favour the placing of nuclear warheads in target cities by terrorists travelling by car or public transport. This is a bad and worrying time in world affairs.
Sharon through an Arab keyboard
Egyptian columnist Mona Eltahawy has an Ariel Sharon piece worth taking a look at in Asharq Alawsat: Sharon as the Quintessential Arab leader. You don't have to agree with every word to find the article worthwhile.
And when it comes to the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, with which Sharon’s name is synonymous, it is important to remember that an Israeli state inquiry in 1983 found Sharon, then defense minister, indirectly responsible for the killings of hundreds of men, women and children at the refugee camps during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. An Arab inquiry has yet to hold directly responsible members of the Lebanese militias who actually slaughtered those men, women and children with their guns and knives.
The Israeli inquiry forced Sharon’s resignation and hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated their horror and disgust at his role in the massacre. I won’t ask where are the Arab demonstrations against the massacres of Arabs by fellow Arabs. The answer is evident in every Arab news story that holds only Sharon responsible for the slaughter at Sabra and Shatila. It is an answer that reminds us again that Arab victimhood makes sense only when we are being victimized by Israel. The horrors we visit upon each other are irrelevant...
UCC Blog Resonds to ADL
A few days ago I noted ADL's press release regarding the United Church of Christ and the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. (As a side note, be sure to check out the comments in this thread regarding the dangerous parallels between Liberation Theology and anti-Semitism.)
Readers may be interested to note the reaction from, as near as I can garner, the "house blogger" for the UCC, Chuck Currie. Currie's post is here: Anti-Defamation League Wrong To Attack United Church Of Christ. As something of a primer on the viewpoint you're click will encounter, Currie apparently believes (let's assume he actually believes this) that the far-left Jewish Voices for Peace better reflects mainstream Jewish opinion than the pile of Jewish groups which oppose divestment. He also cites James M. Wall's statements as an authority in defense of Sabeel -- an unfortunate choice of expert. See posts here, here, here and CAMERA's page here for information on Wall's long history of anti-Israel positions.
Perhaps I should not be, but I am particularly taken aback to read the tone taken by this 'United Church of Christ Seminarian' toward his co-denominationalists who fail to toe the ideological line laid down by the UCC hierarchy. Readers will be familiar with the...how to describe them...UCC dissident group UCCTruths.com that I have linked to on several occasions. To give you an idea of how nasty things can get for those who fail to bow to the ideological view handed down from the titled elites seated above (in a denomination one of who's core concepts I'm given to understand is diversity of view), Currie actually scooped and registered the UCCTruths.org URL to himself -- something internet users will recognize as a decidedly unfriendly act. I'd call it remarkably petty in this case...amusingly so. I understand, however, as UCCTruths is, after all, viewed as a "conservative" group, a form of critter for whom a particular circle of hell is reserved in UCC demonology.
In his response to the ADL, Currie happens to have named our friend and proud UCC'r Dexter Van Zile. Fortunately, no one defends Dexter better than Dexter as he did in this thread in the forum at the official UCC.org web site.
It's so good, I've pasted it in to the extended entry below. There's a lot of material there that stands up on its own. Enjoy.
Continue reading "UCC Blog Resonds to ADL"Sifting the Files
OpinionJournal comments on Stephen Hayes' latest column:
Saddam's Documents - What they tell us could save American lives today.
But if we've learned nothing else about U.S. intelligence in the last four years, it is that its "consensus" views are often wrong. The 9/11 Commission has confirmed extensive communication between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda over the years, including sanctuary for the current insurgent leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. We have also learned that in the years leading up to his ouster Saddam had implemented a "faith campaign" to use fundamentalist Islam as a tool of internal control. Especially if U.S. troops are going to remain to help the new Iraq government defeat the terrorists, we should want to know everything we can about them.
And the American people should know too. For three years now, opponents of the war in Congress and the bureaucracy have cherry-picked intelligence details and leaked them to influence public opinion. The Bush Administration until recently has been remarkably reluctant to fight back. Telling truths about Saddam that are revealed by his own documents is part of that fight.
PMW: Israel is "The Thieving, Zionist Enemy"
Here's the latest from Palestinian Media Watch. The report doesn't seem to be online yet.
PA TV broadcasts a classic PLO hate speech of a PLO official in Egypt
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
PA TV recently broadcast a ceremony from Egypt celebrating the founding of the PLO in 1965. Barakat Al-Fara of the PLO, formerly deputy to the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, spoke in the name of the Palestinian factions. His speech stressed that the origin of the conflict with Israel is not Israel's control of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) but is Israel's existence. His speech included the denying of Israel's right to exist, using the term "Zionist enemy" four times and refusing to say the word "Israel." "The Zionist enemy" he said is "oppressive," the "Zionist oppression and aggression [is] supported by world imperialism," and that "the Zionist enemy … does not know the language of peace." Israel pre-1967 is called the "thieving enemy" and he glorifies Fatah, who in 1965 planted "hope in the heart of the Palestinian nation" - stressing the basis of conflict was Israel's existence - before Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Stip were under Israeli administration. Former Egyptian Ambassador Muhammad Basyuni and Usama Al-Baz, political advisor of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, attended the ceremony.
Continue reading "PMW: Israel is "The Thieving, Zionist Enemy""
'Playing "gotcha" with the Grey Lady' and a Tangent on Blog Editorial Standards
Cathy Young writes to alert me to her post taking issue with the American Thinker piece linked below, Under Clinton, NY Times called surveillance "a necessity" by William Tate. Young's fisking of the piece is here: Playing "gotcha" with the Grey Lady
Young believes the Tate piece is unfair to the MSM both in the way it characterizes MSM reaction to revalations about the Echelon program, and the for what it implies about what was known about Echelon compared to current NSA revelations.
Young makes some good points in a well-researched entry and you'd be well advised to take a look. While Cathy Young does a good job in showing that the Tate piece is at least a bit sloppy and a tad unfair to the Gray Lady, I think that the overall point remains -- MSM reaction and interest to similar revelations in previous administrations has been far more muted compared to the obsessive focus we're witnessing today. As part of her proof of media interest in the story, Young puts her Lexus/Nexus skills to work to list some of the major publications where Echelon revelations and concerns appeared, but frankly, this comes off more as a case of "lying with statistics" (not to imply that Young is lying, but you take the point...) than as reflecting the true degree of media interest in the case. Do you remember anything about this story from years back? I don't, not that I probably would have been overly concerned then, either, but I do not recall anything like the scandal du jour treatment current events are generating. The difference cannot be a difference in public concern that's driving the difference in coverage, since as I understand it, as has often occured with the various -- what would be the Bush equivalent of a "Bimbo Eruption"? -- under GWB, press interest seems once again to be in inverse proportion to public outrage.
While less was known about the details of Echelon at the time, that does not explain, given what was known and the concerns that were voiced (and reported on), why answers were not demanded and more pressure placed if they really believed the issue was an important one -- we've seen the MSM's ability to do this when they deem an issue important enough. Clinton Administration silence was met with movement on to the next issue, while Bush Administration candor has lead to scare and scandal-mongering. The fact that the New York Times piece in question appears in the Science and Technology section and was not bumped to the front page demonstrates how much attention the editors thought the Civil Liberties concerns voiced in the article were worth -- not much. We don't have to speculate where in the paper such revelations printed today would appear.
Anyway, go ahead and check out Cathy's essay. While the Tate piece appears to be on the sloppy side, I'm not sure that Young manages to defoliate it quite as well as she intended.
This brings me around to a tangent...a couple of things I wanted to mention about what has become the editorial standard on this blog. I generally eschew writing on the "philosophy of blogging" as I generally find it one of the most boring and narcissistic things a blogger can do, but maybe a few things do deserve to be said about it from time to time -- an FYI for visitors.
I often find items, or am sent links to items, that are on the surface very much on-topic and linkable for this blog. Sometimes they've been appearing widely in the blogosphere, so other bloggers clearly believe they have value. That's fine for them, but I still have to look at it and put it through my bullshit/fairness filter. If I think an item is pure smear, or way makes a mountain from a mole-hill, I'm not going to post it, or I'll post it with a warning to that effect -- even if I dearly want it to be true, and even if it's being true would be awfully convenient for my worldview.
I don't know about you, but few things make me more angry than having my outrage manipulated. This is one of the primary sins in the past few years committed by MSM outlets like the New York Times and CBS, and some politicians like Al Sharpton, have nothing but outrage manipulation to offer. The least thing I can do on this blog is be honest about my feelings and not offer up as evidence anything I feel to be unfair or incomplete if I know it to be so.
The editorial standard on a blog like this is naturally understood to be lower than what a commercial publication can offer. I obviously don't have the time or interest or resources to check every footnote or assertion before posting. If it passes the smell test, sounds plausible, and carries a viewpoint I think deserves a turn at the microphone, it goes. This is a standard appropriate for honest individual-to-individual discourse. Feedback, correctives, alternative viewpoints or data are always welcome -- that's what comment boxes and email and trackbacks are for.
In the case of the Tate piece, you'll notice not a lot of commentary on my part. This can occur for a couple of different reasons -- maybe time, or the fact that I just have nothing to add, or perhaps, as in this case, because I don't know enough about the subject to know what to say about it -- how much weight it should be given -- but it seems reasonable enough to be offered up as important date, which it remains, with the addition of Cathy Young's commentary.
In my view there are too many blogs out there that just post any sensational thing that comes in front of their faces. In some sectors of the blogosphere, "getting hits" -- however it's done -- becomes it's own justification. Fairness, decent analysis...never let them get in the way of more unique visitors on the hit counter. I saw this in action with a lot of the blog "analysis" following the Rainbow Room launch of a certain large scale blogging venture. Suddenly, getting in on the hits to be had by riding the resulting blog swarm justified writing almost anything, with some "big name" bloggers handing out links to items that wouldn't pass muster -- measured as a matter of smell, fairness, accuracy, or good analysis -- on any other day. Sometimes I think the Weekly World News has higher standards than a lot of bloggers. Yes, the Weekly World News sells a lot of papers, but is that the only standard for success? Not in my view. For this web site that's insufficient. Not with my name and reputation on it.
I think the people who for some strange reason keep clicking in here on a daily basis when there are almost certainly better choices out there deserve something better in return for their time from me.
Will I rant? Will I post things to get others' blood up as they honestly get my blood up? Certainly! But just as important is to pick your head up out of that breathless state from time to time, take a deep lung full of oxygen and self-examination and make sure you're still swimming within sight of the piece of shore-line you thought you were -- that you haven't been swept by the current down to unfamiliar and intellectually dangerous -- and dishonest -- waters.
JIB Awards Reminder
Sorry to bother you, but this is a reminder post that voting is now open in the preliminary round of the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.
This blog has been nominated in three categories:
Best Designed Blog (I would point out that this blog was designed entirely by yours truly with no professional help and went through many, many itterations to get to where you see it.)
Best Politics and Current Affairs Blog
and, Best Overall Blog
Your support is appreciated, and remember that you can vote again every three days.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Rice lets Norway know boycotts a no-no
Condoleeza Rice let the Norwegians know that there would be negative consequences for any boycotts of Israeli products (see here and here). Very nice to read.
USA threats after boycott support
The reaction was reportedly given to the Norwegian embassy in Washington DC, and it was made clear that the statements came from the top level of the US State Department, newspaper VG reports.
VG claims that two classified reports promised a "tougher climate" between the USA and Norway if Halvorsen's remarks represented the foreign policy of the new red-green alliance of the Labor, Socialist Left and Center parties...
Friggatriskaidekaphobics Beware
Freaking Out over Friday the 13th? Skeptics Say Relax!
...How did thirteen get such a bad reputation? To understand, one needs to know the history of twelve, says CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell. "The number twelve has traditionally represented completeness in mythologies and religions around the world," says Nickell. "There are twelve months of the year, twelve chief gods of Olympus, twelve signs of the zodiac, and twelve apostles of Jesus. Thirteen exists just one digit beyond twelve, and is symbolic of the first departure from divine completeness or the initial step towards evil."
Friday has an equally bad history, Nickell points out. According to some traditions, Eve gave the apple to Adam on Friday, the great flood began on a Friday, the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday, execution day was Friday in ancient Rome, and Good Friday exists because it is the reported day of Jesus' crucifixion. An English schoolboy allegedly proved mathematically that thirteen, when examined over a 400-year period, falls on Friday more than any day of the year. (He was thirteen years old at the time, of course.)
Yet the number 13 has a lesser-known role as a lucky number: At the birth of our nation, thirteen colonies formed the original United States of America, a baker's dozen is considered a fortunate bargain, and if you are Jewish, age thirteen is your lucky time for a bar or bat mitzvah.
My wife is a lepidoptaphobic -- a word I think I made up to describe her fear of butterflies and moths -- I kid you not. She's trying to get over it for the sake of the child. Imagine how many butterflies there are around on little kid's clothing and whatnot!
Research: Donners didn't resort to cannibalism
I guess this means a re-shoot for The Shining. The Donners were just victims of bad press.
Research: Donners didn't resort to cannibalism
Cannibalism has been documented at the Sierra Nevada site where most of the Donner Party's 81 members were trapped during the brutal winter of 1846-47, but 21 people, including all the members of the George and Jacob Donner families, were stuck six miles away because a broken axle had delayed them.
No cooked human bones were found among the thousands of fragments of animal bones at that Alder Creek site, suggesting Donner family members did not resort to cannibalism, the archaeologists said at a conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Sacramento, California...
PC(USA) -- Prayers for Peace or Politics? (or worse)
An emailer notes some remarkable material on the Presbyterian Church(USA)'s prayer page for their "Peacemaking Program." This page demonstrates some of the serious flaws in using theology and trying to bend it to specific political goals. Using scripture to beat the Jews over the head has a long, storied and wicked history. It took the Catholic Church millenia to realize and renounce the danger, and here is a supposedly humanitarian Protestant denomination forgetting all that history and unleashing this demon again.
Take this one, for instance: Litany of Stones
Some in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, then the stones would shout out." (Adapted from Luke 19:39-40)
Huda and Fayez, in tears, survey the rubble of their demolished home
... And the stones will cry out
Jawdi, in anger, watches his hillside orchard being bulldozed for a settlement
... And the stones will cry out
Abdel, returning home with bread for the family during curfew, is stopped by soldiers
... And the stones will cry out
Rashad shows his passengers the stone thrown through the bus window by settlers
... And the stones will cry out
Musa drives over rough trails to work because his village is blockaded from the highway
... And the stones will cry out
Yusra's school has been taken over by the soldiers. Now there's a tank in the schoolyard
... And the stones will cry out
Hisham cannot pass the checkpoint on the bypass road because he is Palestinian...
... And the stones will cry out
Very early in the morning on the first day of the week the women went to the tomb. They said to each other, "Who will roll away the stone?" (Adapted from Mark 16:2-3)
From the despair of demolished hopes
...Who will roll away the stone?
From the powerlessness of land confiscation
...Who will roll away the stone?
From the imprisonment of 24 hour curfew
...Who will roll away the stone?
From the fear of violence on the roads
...Who will roll away the stone?
From the suffocation of villages under siege
...Who will roll away the stone?
From the cruelty of school closures
...Who will roll away the stone?
From the tomb of the occupation
...Who will roll away the stone?
Aside from being an obvious 'Prayer for the Palestinian Political Narrative,' the imagery here is recognizable and dangerous. Who put the stone in front of the tomb? The Jews, of course. This is the type of imagery that Dexter Van Zile of the Judeo-Christian Alliance has rightfully condemned when used by representatives of Sabeel (and in fact there are several prayers on the page prepared for Sabeel events). There's a page full of it at the PC(USA).
Continue reading "PC(USA) -- Prayers for Peace or Politics? (or worse)"Chavez and Liberation Theology
In an earlier post, Merry Christmas to you too, Hugo, I posted about the recent anti-Semitic remarks of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, “The world offers riches to all. However, minorities such as the descendants of those who crucified Christ” have become “the owners of the riches of the world...”
According to The Forward, representatives of Venezuela's Jewish community are defending Chavez:
Officials of the leading organization of Venezuelan Jewry were preparing a letter this week to the center, complaining that it had misinterpreted Chavez's words and had failed to consult with them before attacking the Venezuelan president.
"You have interfered in the political status, in the security, and in the well-being of our community. You have acted on your own, without consulting us, on issues that you don't know or understand," states a draft of the letter obtained by the Forward. Copies of the letter are also to be sent to the heads of the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee, among other Jewish groups...
Before dismissing this protest as the product of Venezuelan dhimmis, I'd suggest reading the article which makes a very interesting point:
This is a good chance to get a glimpse at this "Liberation Theology" -- a sort of nexus between Christianity and Marxism, and a frequent ideological fellow traveller with leftist anti-semitism. The trouble with the excuse is that while many may recognize the rhetoric of Liberation Theology, many more, even in Latin America, will recognize the themes of plain old-fashioned Jew-baiting.
Canadian Teen Accused of Murdering U.S. Soldier Appears in Court
DoD: Canadian Teen Accused of Murdering U.S. Soldier Appears in Court
Omar Ahmed Khadr, 19, was 15 when prosecutors say he threw the grenade that killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer. The attack also cost former Army Sgt. Lane Morris an eye.
Khadr appeared in court dressed like a typical teen, wearing an athletic jersey-styled red and blue T-shirt sporting the logo of a Canadian company. The only photo of Khadr that has been made public, taken when he was 15, shows a lanky adolescent. The young man who appeared in court yesterday was bearded and broad-shouldered.
Before the hearing adjourned for the day, presiding officer Marine Col. Robert S. Chester objected to Khadr's attire and instructed attorneys to ensure he did not return to court the following day in a T-shirt. Published rules for courtroom observers expressly forbid such attire.
Khadr fidgeted through the several-hour-long hearing, frequently leaning over to confer with his civilian attorney, American University law professor Muneer Ahmad...
Old enough to do the crime, old enough to do the time.
America's Truth v. the PSM
One of these groups is politically correct, the other isn't. In typical fashion, today's college campus has them categorized exactly wrong.
Georgetown rejects America's Truth Forum while welcoming the Palestine Solidarity Movement. Read about it here, Georgetown’s Capitulation to Radical Islam:
The official statement from the General Manager of the Georgetown University Conference Center (a.k.a. Marriott Georgetown) was as follows: “Your event is too controversial to be held on the property. This decision is based upon business considerations, as the event would call for heightened security since protestors might be attracted from both the student body and off campus. I’m concerned that these protestors might block the main hotel entrance, leading to confrontations with hotel guests and/or room cancellations.”
While the counter-terror symposium was shunned, an organization associated with violence has been awarded a forum. From February 17 - 19, the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM), an activist group that has expressed its willingness to work with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, will be holding its “Fifth Annual Divestment Conference” on Georgetown University’s campus. At past events, shouts of “Kill the Jews” and “Death to Israel” could be heard amongst the crowd. And according to a news report, during PSM’s last conference, when a resolution to condemn terrorism was voted down, “the delegates erupted in cheers.”...
Echelon - A 'Necessity'
American Thinker: Under Clinton, NY Times called surveillance "a necessity"
“If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there’s a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country’s largest intelligence agency.” (Steve Kroft, CBS’ 60 Minutes)
(H/T: mal)
Who's responsibility is it, anyhow?
Zakaria has this right:
There were many hopes that Gaza could become a model of what the Palestinians would do once liberated from occupation. Last week The Christian Science Monitor reported on the new scene: "As the first year devoid of an Israeli presence since 1967 dawns," it wrote, "armed militias roam the streets freely, foreigners are kidnapped with regularity, and the measure of a man in this coastal territory is not his political title, or even the size of his house, but the number of AK-47-wielding bodyguards he employs."
And this wrong:
It is, in fact, all of the Palestinian's making. The lack of any will to build a civil society outside of a vector poiting always toward war with Israel, and the continuing militarization that demand Israeli security measures are a choice made by Palestinians themselves, as this story of another intercepted terror ship attests: Lebanese nab terrorists headed for Gaza
According to military sources who confirmed the report, the boat was on its way to Gaza from Lebanon and planned to drop off canisters filled with weapons, explosives and rockets off the coast where they were to be collected by Palestinian fishermen.
Government officials speculated that the boat was funded by Iran or Syria and that the weapons were meant to reach either the Hamas or the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
In 2002, the Karine A ship was captured in the Red Sea by special IDF forces. The boat's cargo, intended for the Palestinian Authority, included 50 tons of advanced weaponry including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles.
"There are attempts to smuggle weapons into Israel all the time," one official said. "They will do anything they can to get weapons here which they can use in attacks against Israel."
According to Lebanese media reports, the boat - together with four passengers - was caught off the southern port of Tripoli. The boat's point of origin was a dock at Naher Al Bard - a nearby Palestinian refugee camp...
UCLA Professors
A web page that keeps an eye on the most radical. I'm thinking members of the Bruin Alumni Association may have trouble should they ever be nominated for the Supreme Court.
Canadian Campus Chronicles
Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism rampant, campus activists say
Students from the organization spoke at Adas Israel Synagogue in Hamilton last month and shared some of their experiences on campus over the past few years.
Seniors, young families and students were among those attending the event, as were Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale Liberal MP Russ Powers and Burlington Tory MPP Cam Jackson.
Jackson told the audience that anti-Semitism is an “important issue that affects the fabric of our nation,” adding that “any hate crime against any Canadian citizen is a crime against all Canadians.”
Speakers from the student club Zionists at McMaster shared their frustration over anti-Israel literature on campus. The group was formed three years ago in response to anti-Zionist activity on campus by the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights.
As well, Betar-Tagar’s director of campus affairs, Jonathan Jaffit, showed photos from Israel Apartheid Week at the University of Toronto earlier this year.
Signs displayed on campus at the time included, “Globalize the Intifada,” “JNF out of Canada” and “Zionism=Racism.”
Flyers displayed and distributed included the logo of the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade militia, which has been named by the Canadian government as a terrorist organization...
'The Feeling of Betrayal'
Robert Stethem's sister-in-law writes in the New York Sun, 'The Feeling of Betrayal':
Hamadi was arrested in 1987 in what was then West Germany for possession of liquid explosives in Frankfurt airport. Chancellor Kohl denied President Reagan's requests for extradition. The United States was assured, however, of the strictest of sentences contingent upon conviction. The trial began in July of 1988. The West German government spent millions of dollars related to security for this trial. They certainly considered Hezbollah enough of a threat to spend an exorbitant amount of money for security. In May of 1989, Hamadi was found guilty of air piracy and the murder of Robert Stethem. He was also found guilty of possession of liquid explosives in West Germany. This man is a dangerous criminal. Germany has released an obvious threat back into the world. Hamadi is in his early 40s; he has plenty of years left to wreak havoc. It's beyond belief.
There is no reason that can be given that will suffice. There is no reason that can be given that will satisfy the question as to why such a threat to humanity would be released at all, not to mention prior to serving his full term. The release of Hamadi has denied Rob's parents and siblings their sliver of peace in the knowledge that Rob's brutal killer is, at the very least, incarcerated. The German government has turned a blind eye to the long-standing agreement with the U.S. that should Hamadi be released an extradition would occur. Or, at the very least, the stage would be set, ally-to-ally, for a rendition...
Mr. Abbas on the line
A couple of interesting things in this New York Times interview with Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar. First the title, which tells you so very much about the New York Times/New York liberal mind-set: Election Role Won't Soften Hamas Anger at the Israelis. Yes, that's right, Hamas is just angry...and if we could just get them to calm down, if we could just stop provoking them...fill in the rest. Feh. Hamas was born angry. Anger is their purpose.
Also, take note of this:
"Great man!" Mr. Zahar bellowed when he answered the phone. He told Mr. Abbas the speech "was positive and acceptable."
You think a guy who has to kow-tow to Hamas is going to do anything to teach and further peace and accept Israel's existence? No.
Spielberg’s Mendacious Munich - Updated
If you don't mind reading one more on this movie, this review is well worth your time.
City Journal: Spielberg’s Mendacious Munich
...There are all sorts of reasons to malign Munich for its mendacity, its misuse of history, its refusal to recognize that when Israel has acted strongly it has saved its people—as in the building of the wall that has protected countless Jews (and for that matter Palestinians). Or to recognize that whenever Israel has acted weakly, as in the days of the meaningless Oslo accords, Israelis paid for it with their lives...
...Still, all these pale before the criticism of a UCLA professor named Judea Pearl. He is the father of the late Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan for the crime of being a Jew.
Prof. Pearl writes that Munich “does not explicitly justify terrorism, but it leans in that direction by assigning a palatable yet unchallenged rationale to the Palestinian terrorists, and by having the Israeli hero suffer a crisis of conscience. . . . Missing from the script is the most important theme of all: justice.”
Justice, of course, is beyond the scope of Munich. So is reality...
Update: And don't miss Krauthammer today, 'Munich,' the Travesty:
It takes a Hollywood ignoramus to give flesh to the argument of a radical anti-Semitic Iranian. Jewish history did not begin with Kristallnacht. The first Zionist Congress occurred in 1897. The Jews fought for and received recognition for the right to establish a "Jewish national home in Palestine" from Britain in 1917 and from the League of Nations in 1922, two decades before the Holocaust.
But the Jewish claim is far more ancient. If the Jews were just seeking a nice refuge, why did they choose the malarial swamps and barren sand dunes of 19th-century Palestine? Because Israel was their ancestral home, site of the first two Jewish commonwealths for a thousand years -- long before Arabs, long before Islam, long before the Holocaust. The Roman destructions of 70 A.D and 135 A.D. extinguished Jewish independence but never the Jewish claim and vow to return home. The Jews' miraculous return 2,000 years later was tragic because others had settled in the land and had a legitimate competing claim. Which is why Jews have for three generations offered to partition the house. The Arab response in every generation has been rejection, war and terrorism...
College on the Saudi dole
So a bunch of Columbia scholars, including a dean, took a junket on the Saudi dime recently:
NY Sun: Columbia Dean Admits Taking Saudi Junket
The dean, Lisa Anderson of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, was one of five members of the committee named in December 2004. The committee for the most part cleared the accused scholars of blame, prompting critics to describe their report as a whitewash.
The March 2004 junket to Saudi Arabia is described in glowing terms on a Web site for former Saudi Aramco employees that details the "delightful lunch" enjoyed by the Columbia delegation, as well as a "wonderful dinner" during which "guests watched the sunset over the sand dunes from the tent."
The tour, which the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations helped organize, took a total of 10 Columbia faculty members and scholars to Riyadh, Dharan, and other parts of Saudi Arabia to tour facilities and meet with officials of the oil company...
Yes, it's all about the oil at Columbia. Is it so bad for a group of scholars to accept a trip to a place they study? Well, as one emailer writes:
Like a lot of things, Saudi money in academia is similar to the money of any wealthy person who gives to congenial institutions. Except - the Saudis are systematic, rigorously ideological, and have vast resources...
And at least one faculty group did see an ethical problem with the trip:
One Columbia Faculty Vetoed Saudi Junket
I wonder who explained ethics to them...ahem. Anyway, your universities, on the Saudi dole.
Guest Blog: 2006 Year in Preview
Frequent commenter isirota1965 recently circulated this "2006 Year in Preview" report, and I thought it was long...but quite clever! You may enjoy it, too.
-Sol
2006 Year in Preview
January: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, responding to criticism that officials are ruining the sport by calling so many penalties, concedes that one officiating crew “may”have gone too far when it penalized the Dallas Stars for two interference calls during the pre-game warmup. Anna Kournikova denies that she played on her beauty in order to draw fans, and claims that she was a “serious” tennis player. She then indicates that she will play a series of exhibition matches in the nude. Lineups form in cities around the world before the locations of the matches are even announced. Confirmation hearings begin for United States Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The hearings get off to a rocky start when it Judge Alito is confronted with a paper he once wrote wherein he referred to anyone who eats an omelet as a “baby killer”. Southern Cal wins its second straight BCS National Title when it clobbers an overrated Texas squad 52-31. Trojans running back Reggie Bush denies that he is Superman, despite leaving the field midway through the second quarter to successfully perform CPR on a fan who was having a heart attack. However, he admits that on the night before the game, he did stay in a Holiday Inn Express. The Detroit Pistons run their record to an astonishing 34-4, but all is not positive for the Motor City, as city voters approve a special ballot initiative which bans the Detroit Lions and Tigers from playing in the city. A poll taken after the vote reveals that voters felt that “there were enough other negatives associated with the city as it is”. Roger Federer wins the Australian Open again, and becomes the first player in Open history to not even break out in a sweat during any of his matches.
Big Ship
Here's the same ship carrying the USS Cole. This gives you an even better idea of scale. Looks like a kid's plastic model:
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Mondo Alito
PJM has a special page for Alito coverage that's quite good. Roger Simon calls Ted Kennedy a "hatchet man," which is putting it kindly. The Democrats are trying to get some synergy going, trying to make people pay attention to the proceedings, trying to make Alito tie himself up. It's a risk that's not working. Instead they're making themselves look like petty smear artists. Watching Ted Kennedy read quotes from a newspaper Alito may never have read let alone wrote for must be recognizable by any fair-minded person as being an unfair ploy for headlines -- the very definition of smear. Of course it doesn't matter to Kennedy. That desicated apple-head will die in office. The voters of Massachusetts will keep putting him back in place even if he murders someone...oops.
And they wonder why people disrespect Washington. People respect it when they see others getting a fair shake, even between two people who may disagree. Teddy Kennedy and otheres aren't giving Sam Alito a fair shake, and most people can see that. Unfortunately, that's what you get when politicians know they'll never be held to account.
There’s no alternative to Bush
Mark Steyn in The Spectator:
Again, you don’t have to be a fan of the present administration to recognise that if you disagree with the Bush doctrine and Washington’s approach to the world, you better have an alternative to offer. A real alternative, that is, not just the usual transnational placebos. There was a hilarious interview in Der Spiegel a few weeks back with Don Rumsfeld, in which the Germans seemed to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be running the show on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The US defence secretary observed that ‘all of us have to be concerned when a country that important, large and wealthy is disconnected from the normal interactions with the rest of the world’.
‘The US is trying to make the case in the United Nations Security Council?’ inquired the chap from Der Spiegel.
‘I would not say that,’ said Rumsfeld, mischievously. ‘I thought France, Germany and the UK were working on that problem.’
Continue reading "There’s no alternative to Bush"
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Skinhead stabs eight people inside Moscow synagogue
JPost: Skinhead stabs eight people inside Moscow synagogue
According to Russian news sources, three people were moderately wounded.
Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing "shock" at the attack in Moscow.
Yuval Fuchs, the charges d'affaires at the Israeli embassy in Moscow, asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to keep the embassy appraised of the situation, and expressed the hope that the "perpetrators would be brought to justice." The ministry put out a statement saying that the embassy was in "constant contact" with the Jewish community there, and would provide it with all assistance requested.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he directed Fuchs to transmit a "strong and firm" message to the Russian government of the need to take "strong steps against these types of anti-Semitic incidents."
Among those wounded was the synagogue's rabbi's son-in-law, a rabbi himself who was undergoing surgery, said Avraham Berkowitz, the executive director of Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union.
A witness told Channel 2 Wednesday night that he heard some people say that the attacker yelled "Heil Hitler" as he attacked...
Their real face
From Palestinian Media Watch (not yet on the web that I can see). This is the kind of two-faced communication that used to work all the time, and still works to an extent as long as we let it -- a proposition that's more and more difficult with groups like PMW on the job. The Jewish leaders who went off for the big launch of the Geneva Initiative and then came back to sell the idea to all us rubes ought to read this and be embarrassed.
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Palestinian Media Watch has for years documented the duplicity of the Palestinian Authority leadership, which sends a peaceful message to the world media and hate and terror message to its own people in Arabic.
A new example was documented this week, involving Palestinian Legislative Council member Qadura Faras. Faras has been a prominent supporter of the "Geneva Initiative," an unofficial peace proposal drafted in 2003 by a group of leftist Israelis led by Yossi Beilin and Palestinians, and appears on the Geneva Initiative website, conveying a message of peace to Israelis.
Should Arab Anti-Semitism be on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Agenda?
This sounds like an interesting panel discussion concerning a subject apparently widely avoided by Holocaust facilities -- current Arab anti-Semitism and the historic ties between the Nazis and Arab leaders.
Should Arab Anti-Semitism be on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Agenda?
Participants:
• Edwin Black, the award-winning, New York Times and investigative author whose books include "IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation" and "Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict." His recent JTA article, "Despite Holocaust Denial, Iran Seen To Have Worked With Nazis" (12/19) was republished in the Washington Jewish Week. It can be read here.
• Congressmen Elliot Engel of New York
• Rabbi Avi Weiss, president of AMCHA
• Chuck Morris, Massachusetts congressional candidate and author of "The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism"
• Maurice Shohet, an Iraqi Jew on the silence of the Museum on the fate of Jews in Arab lands, and on the 1941 Farhud massacre, when Iraqis, in a show of solidarity with Hitler, instigated a pogrom murdering Baghdad’s Jews in their homes.
• Fred S. Zeidman, chair of the Museum - has been invited
Continue reading "Should Arab Anti-Semitism be on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Agenda?"
Return of the Mahdi
I have trouble getting excercised over Pat Robertson or the fact that George Bush sometimes says, "May God continue to bless America" when I read stuff like this:
Daniel Pipes: The Mystical Menace of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Not surprisingly, it's a technical religious term. Mahdaviat derives from mahdi, Arabic for "rightly-guided one," a major figure in Islamic eschatology. He is, explains the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world." The concept originated in the earliest years of Islam and, over time, became particularly identified with the Shi‘ite branch. Whereas "it never became an essential part of Sunni religious doctrine," continues the encyclopedia, "Belief in the coming of the Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet became a central aspect of the faith in radical Shi‘ism," where it is also known as the return of the Twelfth Imam.
Mahdaviat means "belief in and efforts to prepare for the Mahdi."
In a fine piece of reporting, Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor shows the centrality of mahdaviat in Mr. Ahmadinejad's outlook and explores its implications for his policies.
As mayor of Tehran, for example, Mr. Ahmadinejad appears to have in 2004 secretly instructed the city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi. A year later, as president, he allocated $17 million for a blue-tiled mosque closely associated with mahdaviat in Jamkaran, south of the capital. He has instigated the building of a direct Tehran-Jamkaran railroad line. He had a list of his proposed cabinet members dropped into a well adjacent to the Jamkaran mosque, it is said, to benefit from its purported divine connection...
...What Mr. Peterson calls the "presidential obsession" with mahdaviat leads Mr. Ahmadinejad to "a certitude that leaves little room for compromise. From redressing the gulf between rich and poor in Iran, to challenging America and Israel and enhancing Iran's power with nuclear programs, every issue is designed to lay the foundation for the Mahdi's return."...
How long before it's available on satellite in North America?
Hamas Launches TV Station in Gaza
A picture of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, one of Islam's holiest shrines, filled the screen for most of the day.
Hamas says it wants Al Aqsa Television, the first private station in Gaza, to be higher-tech and more modern than most stodgy, state-run Arab stations.
It will try to look like Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, which has reporters throughout the Middle East, including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. When Hezbollah attacks Israeli targets, Al Manar often broadcasts images of the strike...
Terrorists emulating other terrorists. I wonder if they'll be doing any programming like this?
Ale-less in Gaza
In case you missed this one, don't. It's yet another shiv in the buttocks of the idea that Arab poverty is the product of outside forces over internal flaws like tribalism and a failure to develop their own civil society.
After all these years, I am ale-less in Gaza
Arriving in Gaza yesterday, it had to be admitted that the man had a point. Four months ago, when I was last here, the place sparkled with optimism. With the hated Israelis gone, Gaza was going to show the world what Palestinians could do when left to their own devices.
The Strip's miles of golden sand were to become a sort of Islamic Miami Beach, minus the booze and bikinis. Maybe, a few diehard optimists dared to hope, Yasser Arafat's vision of Gaza as a Middle Eastern Singapore might at last start to be realised.
Yesterday, it felt more like the Wild West. The first sign of just how dodgy security has become came when Said Ghazali, The Daily Telegraph's local man in Jerusalem, and I arrived at the Palestinian side of the crossing to learn that our regular driver - stocky, dependable Ashraf - would not be there to meet us.
He had a reasonable excuse. He has the bad luck to belong to the Masri clan, who are currently engaged in a blood feud with their rivals, the Kafarnehs. The toll so far is five dead and 70-odd wounded. Yesterday a Kafarneh was injured in a shooting attack and Ashraf thought it prudent to leave his cab in the garage...
Support for Bethlehem?
Midwest Conservative Journal Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams in a letter to the Mayor of Bethlehem:
Why raise concerns with the Israelis? Isn't Bethlehem under PA control?
Real support for the Christians of Bethlehem might be better accomplished by putting pressure on those directly responsible for their suffering -- the PA and the Islamist thugs that run rampant there.
(H/T: Larry Reud)
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
ADL Takes a Stand on UCC and Sabeel
It's good to see the ADL continuing to speak out on this:
ADL Troubled by United Church of Christ's Embrace of Radicalized Palestinian Christian Group
"While it is heartening that the United Church of Christ has come out strongly against those who advocate for Israel's destruction, it is troubling that church leaders continue to embrace the Sabeel Center while ignoring statements from its leader questioning Israel's right to exist," said Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, ADL Director of Interfaith Affairs. "You can't have it both ways."
In October, leaders of the UCC, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Common Global Ministries Board issued a statement condemning both suicide terrorism and recent statements from the Iranian President calling for Israel's destruction. "With our partner the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center," the church leaders said, "we assert the moral reprehensibility of suicide bombing."
While welcoming UCC's clear denunciation of violence, ADL is troubled by the church's continuing partnership with the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Christian group until such time as they recognize Israel's historic validity and right to exist. Sabeel's founder and leader, Rev. Naim Ateek, has on several occasions openly questioned Israel's right to exist, at one point telling an audience of Christian and Jewish interfaith leaders: "I have come to the point of the reality – but not the right – of Israel's existence."
In a letter to Rev. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ and Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and other church leaders, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman and Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor asked: "If Sabeel is your partner, how can you countenance these words, and not see a relationship between the words and those who attack Israel physically and verbally?"
That's exactly right. You cannot express doubt about Israel's right to exist and simultaneously and sincerely claim to be against the violence taken to ensure its demise. Groups like Sabeel provide the moral cover for those willing to take more direct action.
If you're in the Washington area tomorrow...
...and have had your fill of demagogues twisting the record to make it sound as though good judges get their jollies over the strip-searching of 10 year old girls (one starts to wonder about some of the Senators asking the questions), this event sounds interesting:
featuring
DR. HELEN SZAMUELY
with
GERARD BAKER
NOAM SCHEIBER
MARK TAPSCOTT
hosted by
JOHN O'SULLIVAN
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006
4:30 P.M.
HUDSON INSTITUTE'S BETSY AND WALTER STERN CONFERENCE CENTER
1015 15TH STREET, NW, SIXTH FLOOR
WASHINGTON, DC
An Interview with Kanan Makiya
Lots and lots of good material in this Democratiya interview with Iraqi author and activist, Kanan Makiya. There's a ton there, but here's a little snip:
I would say that much of the strength of the hostility of the Jihadi movement, and of the forces that have made life so horrible in Iraq, came from the silence of Europe. Europe has a lot to answer for...
(via Mick Hartley)
Discovering more silence at Columbia
Martin Kramer takes note of a young Israeli violinist's short stint in Middle East studies at Columbia University:
Haaretz: Was that the only case?
Malkin-Almani: There were cases like that all the time. In one class I asked the lecturer where the border between East and West Jerusalem ran. He started to shout that you Israelis are so stupid, you don't know anything. All the students in the class joined him and started shouting at me. That was the routine. Once I met with Said, who was a good friend of Daniel Barenboim, and I told him I wanted to join the Arab-Jewish orchestra they had established. He asked me where I was born and I told him Israel. Straight off he told me that Israel had not permitted the entry of a few musicians from Syria who wanted to play with the orchestra in Bethlehem. Suddenly he started to shout at me as though I were the one who stamps the permits. After two years of studies I said enough is enough and I left the university.
Haaretz: Did you share your experiences with anyone on the faculty?
Malkin-Almani: I had an Israeli lecturer whom I told what happened in the classes and I gave her all the articles we were given. She said that we must not meet in the university. A month later she told me, "We checked it out, it is dangerous to act and the best thing is to be silent."
Kramer:
Monday, January 9, 2006
Voting is now open...
Voting is now open in the preliminary round of the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.
This blog has been nominated in three categories:
Best Designed Blog (I would point out that this blog was designed entirely by yours truly with no professional help and went through many, many itterations to get to where you see it.)
Best Politics and Current Affairs Blog
and, Best Overall Blog
I have no illusions about winning this popularity contest, but you can help me avoid humiliation by clicking on the above links and voting once every three days. This initial round of voting runs until the 19th.
If you like what you read here, or find it useful, but have never left a tip or made a purchase through the Amazon links on the sidebar, this is a cheap and easy way of providing a little payback. Your support is appreciated.
There are also lots and lots of good blogs to explore in the various nomination categories. Fellow bloggers, you are welcome to say hello and draw attention to your own nominations (even if they're in the same categories) in the comments.
International Press-Freedom advocates should be there any minute to protest...
Fatah outraged at al-Arabiyah television
Leaflets distributed by Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, demanded that the Dubai-based station apologize to the families in particular and the Palestinians in general within 24 hours or else its offices would be closed.
"At a time when the Muslims and Islam are facing a political, intellectual, economic and social offensive by all the forces of evil in the world, Al-Arabiya has aired a scandalous and despicable film that is completely biased in favor of the executioner at the expense of the victims of occupation," the leaflets charged...
...The group hailed female suicide bombers for their role in "defending the people and the land," saying they had brought honor to Islam and Muslims worldwide.
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades strongly condemned the documentary and demanded an investigation to find out who had financed it and who was behind it. "If Al-Arabiya does not apologize within 24 hours, we will have to close down their offices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," the group warned...
...Saif Eddin Shaheen, a correspondent in the Gaza Strip for Al- Arabiya, was attacked in 2004 by Fatah gunmen for reporting on the power struggle in Fatah.
Five masked gunmen attacked Shaheen as he was driving to his Gaza City office. During the attack, which lasted about 10 minutes, he was beaten and his assailants fired shots in the air. One of his attackers, who identified himself as a Fatah member, said he would "teach him a lesson in journalism."...
These sorts of threats and intimidation are the rule, not the exception.
Still More Euros for Terror?
Did Germany pay $5 million for the release of hostage Susanne Osthoff? Transatlantic Intelligencer has the story: Still More Euros for Terror?
The UN Gives Hamas a Raise
The UNRWA should have been done away with long ago. Now it's an entitlement.
The UN Gives Hamas a Raise by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen
The 7.5 – 21% increase for UNRWA’s workers was ostensibly enacted to bring their salaries closer to the much higher level of Palestinian Authority employees. UNRWA is “the second biggest employer” in Gaza after the Palestinian Authority.
The UNRWA raise also has had the dire effect of increasing UN funding to HAMAS. Most UNRWA workers in Gaza – in fact 90 percent - voted for HAMAS in their 2003 union elections. HAMAS also runs the union’s executive committee, and controls 23 of the 27 seats in of the workers’ representatives in the different sectors, such as teachers, clerks, services, etc.
Since HAMAS deducts membership fees of its activists from their UNRWA salaries, the UNWRA raise contributes directly to the HAMAS budget...
Just another example of how the United Nations has made progress toward peace and development more difficult, not less.
Religious Intolerance in Iran...
The Other War
I'm looking forward to reading Stephanie Gutmann's book, The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy, reviewed here at the Claremont Institute: Pictures Worth a Thousand Lives
Regime propaganda is pervasive. TV spots feature inspirational poetry like "how beautiful is the scent of the land, which is fed from the waterfall of blood, springing from an angry body." In April 2002, an Israeli drone flying above a funeral procession in the city of Jenin caught on tape a Palestinian corpse falling off his bier, reproving his handlers, then hopping back on. It happened again in the midst of a crowd, sending bystanders fleeing in terror. It was part of an effort to inflate both the body count and the number of photo-ops...
(H/T: mal)
Milquetoast on the Mosque
Speaking of the grassroots asking the right questions that the media can't (or won't), here are a couple more middle-of-the-road articles that have appeared in recent days concerning the Islamic Society of Boston and their new Mosque project that manage to set a middle road on the facts while not really delving very deeply into why people may want to be concerned about the construction of a Saudi-connected Mosque in their neighborhood.
Reuters: Religious tension grows in Boston over new mosque (H/T: Meryl Yourish)
and
Christian Science Monitor: Battle waged in Boston over new mosque
The Grassroots Doing the Job of the Higher-Ups
Some Presbyterians are asking the questions the press and the PC(USA) heierarchy themselves should have been asking concerning the Muslim American Society and their use of a Presbyterian campground.
Post details: Unanswered Questions about the Cedarkirk Incident
Intel Chips -- a no-no for Norway
I hope Norway isn't using the latest Intel technology.
The two platforms, Intel Viiv technology and Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology are aimed at enhancing the "digital lifestyle at work, home and while on the go."
"Our efforts to work across multiple industries help ensure that there is content, software and devices available to take advantage of a new generation of uses and experiences," said David Perlmutter, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's mobility group...
(H/T: Cynic)
Saddam's Terror Training Camps
2.5%. That's the percentage of the 2 million documents captured in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan that have been thoroughly examined. Stephen Hayes' piece is a must-read. A snip below...
Saddam's Terror Training Camps
Reaching out to Islamic radicals was, in fact, one of the first moves Saddam Hussein made upon taking power in 1979. That he did not do it for ideological reasons is unimportant. As Barodi noted at last week's hearing, "He used us and we used him."
Throughout the 1980s, including the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam cast himself as a holy warrior in his public rhetoric to counter the claims from Iran that he was an infidel. This posturing continued during and after the first Gulf war in 1990-91. Saddam famously ordered "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) added to the Iraqi flag. Internally, he launched "The Faith Campaign," which according to leading Saddam Hussein scholar Amatzia Baram included the imposition of sharia (Islamic law). According to Baram, "The Iraqi president initiated laws forbidding the public consumption of alcohol and introduced enhanced compulsory study of the Koran at all educational levels, including Baath Party branches."
Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law who defected to Jordan in 1995, explained these changes in an interview with Rolf Ekeus, then head of the U.N. weapons inspection program. "The government of Iraq is instigating fundamentalism in the country," he said, adding, "Every party member has to pass a religious exam. They even stopped party meetings for prayers."...
Taheri: Israel Must Claim Victory Over Palestine
And again, Amir Taheri points out the obvious: That time-honored tradition calls for the victors to dictate the peace, and if the victors are prevented from behaving as victors, peace may neveer come.
Taheri: Israel Must Claim Victory Over Palestine
This was a novel situation in history, throughout which the victor and the vanquished had always acknowledged their respective positions and moved beyond it in accordance with a peace imposed by the victor.
In the Israeli-Arab case this had not been done because each time the UN had intervened to put the victor and the vanquished on an equal basis and lock them into a problematic situation in the name of a mythical quest for an impossible peace.
In this novel situation, bizarre new concepts were invented to prevent the normal mechanisms of war and peace from functioning. These include such concepts as land for peace and peace with justice.
There is, however, not a single instance in history in which the winner of a war has given the loser any land in exchange for peace. Nor is there a single instance in which justice and peace have gone together as Siamese twins. In every case the winner wins the land and gives the loser peace. In every case the peace that is imposed is unjust to the loser and just to the winner.
Without going far back into history, it is sufficient to glance at some of the dozens of wars in Europe, Asia and Africa in recent decades to see that they all ended with a peace designed, if not dictated, by the winner. Thus for more than 50 years Israel and the Arabs have been asked to achieve what no other warring parties have ever achieved...
Taheri: The Despicable Self-Loathing Preached By 'Syriana'
Amir Taheri on George Clooney's latest Oscar inevitable:
In North Africa where France ruled for more than a century every shortcoming, and every major crime, is blamed on the French. From Egypt to the Indian Ocean all was the fault of the British, until the Americans emerged as a more convincing protagonist in the fantasyland of conspiracy theories. (In Libya where Italy ruled for a while in the last century, even the fact that the telephones don't work in 2006 is blamed on the Italians.)
Would it change anything if one were to remind the conspiracy theorists that none of the high profile political murders in the Arab world over the past century had anything to do with the US or any other foreign power?
Let us start with Rafik Al-Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister, who was murdered last February. Was he killed by the CIA or, as Abdul-Halim Khaddam, Syria's former Vice President, now asserts by a criminal coterie in Damascus?
The list of Arab leaders murdered since 1900 is a long one. It includes six prime ministers, three kings, a ruling Imam, seven presidents of the republic, and dozens of ministers, parliamentarians and senior military officials. Every single one of them was killed either by Islamist militants (often from the Muslim Brotherhood) or by pan-Arab nationalists or by radical Arab security services.
That many Arabs should welcome the suggestion that their tragedies are due to evil doings by foreigners maybe understandable.
It is less so when so many Americans come together to make a film to portray their nation as evil incarnate...
A similar version of the same piece is here: Hollywood Arabs
Sunday, January 8, 2006
Light Blog Weekend - Updated
Sorry, yesterday's light (OK, non-) blogging will continue today. Yesterday was more or less a break day, but today I actually hope to sit down and get something longer done, and if I keep getting distracted by the normal story here, story there thing, I'll never focus.
Pointers and emails are always welcome, of course, and did you know there's a forum where you can post stuff?
Update on Monday morning: Well, I didn't get much done yesterday, unfortunately. I'm going to catch up on some posting -- sorry if you've already heard any of this, and much of it will be raw linking, which I usually feel a bit guilty about.
BTW, for those of you who read this blog via RSS, there is a second 'set of posts,' I guess you'd call it, that shuffle in with the regular posts (they used to be on the sidebar) which is just raw linkage and that doesn't show up in the RSS feed, so it may pay to stop in at the main page once in awhile to look. I often wonder how I should work in those links that I don't, for one reason or another, have anything to say about other than "go look," and that's been my solution.
Friday, January 6, 2006
Norway -- Boycott embarrassment, also removes self from EU terror list cooperation
Earlier I noted a Norwegian County's boycott of Israeli goods: More Arab than the Arabs -- Norwegian County Boycotts Israel. It seems Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen has been quite vocal in her support of the boycott (all errors in original):
Norway Post: Finance Minster supports boycott of Isareli goods
- My goal and that of the Socialist Left Party is that Norwegian consumers will avoid goods and services from Israel and make other choices in the stores, Halvorsen says to Dagbladet.
At the end of the month her party will start a solidarity campaign for Palestina. A campaihgn which receives the full support of the finance minister.
- It is a long time since I bought any Israeli products, she says.
The Norwegian government's official policy is that such a boycott is not the best method, and the initiative comes as surprise to Forerign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.
He says that Norway will not boycott Israel financially.
- This not the Government's policy, the Norwegian Foreign Minister says to NRK Radio.
Can Islam be Reformed?
The Pope thinks it's unlikely, as recounted in this fascinating exchange (should be read in full) between Hugh Hewitt and guest:
JF: Well, the thesis that was proposed by this scholar was that Islam can enter into the modern world if the Koran is reinterpreted by taking the specific legislation, and going back to the principles, and then adapting it to our times, especially with the dignity that we ascribe to women, which has come through Christianity, of course. And immediately, the Holy Father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said well, there's a fundamental problem with that, because he said in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Mohammed, but it's an eternal word. It's not Mohammed's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it, whereas in Christianity, and Judaism, the dynamism's completely different, that God has worked through His creatures. And so, it is not just the word of God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used His human creatures, and inspired them to speak His word to the world, and therefore by establishing a Church in which he gives authority to His followers to carry on the tradition and interpret it, there's an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations. I was...I mean, Hugh, I wish I could say it as clearly and as beautifully as he did, but that's why he's Pope and I'm not, okay? That's one of the reasons. One of others, but his seeing that distinction when the Koran, which is seen as something dropped out of Heaven, which cannot be adapted or applied, even, and the Bible, which is a word of God that comes through a human community, it was stunning.
HH: And so, is it fair to describe him as a pessimist about the prospect of modernity truly engaging Islam in the way modernity has engaged Christianity?
JF: Well, the other way around.
HH: Yes. I meant that.
JF: Yeah, that Christianity can engage modernity just like it did...the Jews did Egypt, or Christians did to Greece, because we can take what's good there, and we can elevate it through the revelation of Christ in the Bible. But Islam is stuck. It's stuck with a text that cannot be adapted, or even be interpreted properly.
HH: And so the Pope is a pessimist about that changing, because it would require a radical reinterpretation of what the Koran is?
JF: Yeah, which is it's impossible, because it's against the very nature of the Koran, as it's understood by Muslims...
(via LGF)
Handsome and Cool
My five year old told me that I'm "handsome" and "cool." She also asked if we can get married when she gets bigger. Of course I said, yes.
"Where can we get married?"
Me: "How about in a castle?"
She (concerned): "A...Disney castle?"
Me: "Sure."
She: "No!"
Seems she figures if it's a Disney castle she'll be approached by Mickey Mouse and other costumed Disney characters as she has seen in commercials, and she's deathly afraid of grown-ups in full-body costume suits.
Wisdom.
Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty
Sinclair, the Pulitzer Prize-winning crusader who penned the famous novel The Jungle, prompting Teddy Roosevelt to coin the term "muckraker," had, quite simply, lied. But before he lied, he was a true believer. He'd gone to Massachusetts to research his book Boston, which was set against the backdrop of the trial — the trial, that is, of two supposedly innocent men. Unfortunately for Sinclair, Sacco and Vanzetti's lawyer told him the unvarnished truth: The pair were just plain guilty, and their alibis were a pack of lies...
Telegraph: Muslims boycott Holocaust Day (again)
Melanie Phillips notes this story in the Telegraph:
A spokesman said it would not participate in the event on Jan 26 because it was not sufficiently inclusive.
"The MCB would be honoured to participate in a national memorial day providing that it clearly affirmed that the lives of all people, regardless of race or religion, are to be valued equally," he said. "This is why the Muslim Council has consistently called for a genocide memorial day."
The council, which is considered to be the main representative body for Muslims, caused controversy when it declined to take part in last year's national event which marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Stephen Smith, the chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said: "Holocaust Memorial Day has always been an inclusive event. That is why, from its first year, survivors from Bosnia, Rwanda and the Holocaust have come together: Jews, Muslims and Christians, as well as non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust - gay and disabled people and Roma communities."
He added: "Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity for all communities and faiths to learn from a salutary past and expose all forms of racism - including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism - xenophobia, discrimination and bigotry."
It is the second controversy triggered by the council in the past few days. Earlier this week, gay activists criticised comments by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the head of the council, in which he condemned civil partnerships and describing homosexuality as immoral...
The MCB is the main, major, mainstream Muslim group in Britain. From pulpit and podium, Muslims worldwide seem to have made Jews and Jewish institutions their targets, their foes. Is it any wonder some people have concerns here in America, too? It can happen here.
Taking Sides
Yesterday I noted the full page ad taken out by two Jewish groups -- CJP and JCRC -- in solidarity with the groups and individuals being sued by the Islamic Society of Boston. JRTelegraph notes this Boston Globe article on the ad that appeared yesterday:
Muslims, Jews spar in ads over mosque - Building dispute strains earlier ties
Of note is the overall tone of the article, which attempts to make it sound like the ISB is being plagued by questions they've already answered, and also this rather odd quote from Nancy Kaufman, head of JCRC:
That can't mean what it sounds like it means, can it? That the JCRC is actually reticent to "take sides" in this affair?
Arik's Tale
Here are a couple of Sharon op-eds in today's papers:
and
Washington Post: A Calamity for Israel By Charles Krauthammer
For a book-length treatment of Sharon's life, up to a few years ago, I'd recommend Sharon's autobiography, Warrior:
Bye Bye Fawaz
Cleveland Imam to Leave the Country
The agreement allows Fawaz Damra to resettle in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review.
A judge has approved the agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will decide his destination.
Damra is still in federal custody, said Robert Birach, a Detroit lawyer who negotiated for him. He declined to offer more details.
Damra, spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, is Palestinian-born. He was convicted in 2004 of concealing ties to alleged terrorist groups when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. He served two months in prison and lost his U.S. citizenship...
"Alleged terrorist groups"? Since when is Palestinian Islamic Jihad an "alleged" anything? The media is so phobic of that word they get tangled up even when it's a straight-out factual statement that doesn't require a judgement call.
Comparing Bush to Truman
Interesting post at Oxblog doing just that.
(via PJM)
The Fall of Rome Today
Richard Landes has a more scholarly look at the dialogue between two historians of Rome I posted about in the entry below, The Fall of Rome -- Yesterday...Tomorrow, and the implications for today.
The Fall of Rome, the Fall of Europe
After baking this recipe for a generation (in which post-colonial paradigms dominated much scholarly attention), what do we have? Several pearls of wisdom: Nothing dramatic happening, no threatening collapse, just a smooth transition. So either we have nothing to learn from the “fall of Rome” about our current conditions or, still better, we have nothing to fear from the challenge of Islamism to Europe. If this sounds like the kind of thinking that dominated French public discourse at the time of the Ramadan 200[5] intifada, it’s because it is...
(via PJM)
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Dinner with the Sandmonkey
I just got back from having a lovely dinner with the ever-lovable Ranting Sandmonkey, who's in Boston for a super-secret mission on behalf of a furtive Cairo-based Zionist/Masonic cabal of Islamo-reformists.
When I saw that 6' 5" blond-haired, blue-eyed Egyptian pull up on his camel and climb down in front of the restaurant, I could be forgiven for wondering how it is he continues to manage to blog anonymously. We strode to the front of the line waiting to be seated and announced, "We have blogs!" whereupon the king of the Egyptian blogosphere flashed some of that pyramid money and the waitstaff ushered us tout de suit to a choice table by the window, removing the plebeian couple who hadn't quite finished their meals yet.
Thai food, of course.
If you ever get a chance to meet the monkey of sand...don't miss it. A fine fellow! (And don't forget to check out his blog.)
Born in Mecca, PhD in International Relations from USC, Holocaust Denier
They don't give doctorates to just anyone do they? OK, maybe they do.
MEMRI has a report on this fellow, born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, PhD from USC...you can read the rest.
Dr. Sindi in an Interview with Mehr News Agency (December 26, 2005)
Interviewer: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he thinks that the Holocaust is a myth. However, he also said some European countries insist that millions of innocent Jews were killed during World War II by Hitler, and asked why the Europeans don’t give part of their land to the Jews if they are correct. What is your view?"
Dr. Sindi: "I agree wholeheartedly with President Ahmadinejad. There was no such a thing as the 'holocaust.' The so-called 'holocaust' is nothing but Jewish/Zionist propaganda. There is no proof whatsoever that any living Jew was ever gassed or burned in Nazi Germany or in any of the territories that Nazi Germany occupied during World War II. The holocaust propaganda was started by the Zionist Jews in order to acquire worldwide sympathy for the creation of Israel after World War II. I detailed all of this in my book (The Arabs and the West: The Contributions and the Inflictions).
"I also wrote a detailed article titled 'The Holocaust is a Typical Zionist Myth'.
"President Ahmadinejad is 100% correct and 100% logical when he states that if the European countries keep insisting that Nazi Germany gassed and burned six million live Jews, then Germany or Austria should be the real location for this rogue state of Israel. In fact, this illegal and illegitimate state of Israel is the one that created a real holocaust against the Palestinian people, both Muslim and Christian."...
Ad war over Mosque
In this week's Boston Jewish Advocate newspaper, there is a story describing the fact that Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Boston's Jewish Community Relations Council are standing with the David Project in the Islamic Society of Boston's lawsuit. They have taken out a full-page advertisement in the same issue, likely in response to the ISB's add in a previous issue, basically stating that while they are both in favor of fighting for religious pluralism, lawsuits do not help.
This is welcome news, as the stance of both, left-leaning, groups was something of an open question.
Here is the portion of the article that the Advocate makes available online:
Ad war launched over ISB lawsuit
In an acknowledgment that a lawsuit filed by the Islamic Society of Boston has escalated tensions between Boston’s Muslim and Jewish communities, Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Jewish Community Relations Council issued a joint statement this week in solidarity with the David Project, one of the groups named in the suit.
The statement, published in a full-page advertisement in this week’s Advocate, insists that the ability to raise concerns and answer questions must be respected “if we are to live together and sustain a healthy, diverse community.”
The statement comes two weeks after the ISB took out an ad in the Advocate defending its lawsuit against the David Project and other groups and individuals it claims conspired against it. The ISB’s ad appeals for members of the Boston community “not to buy into the poisoned rhetoric and attacks against our community undertaken by a few extremists who would divide us.”
The ISB named the David Project and the group Citizens for Peace and Tolerance in a lawsuit filed earlier in the year against the Fox 25 News and the Boston Herald. The suit charges the parties, which have both actively raised concerns about the ties between ISB officials and Islamic extremist groups, with defamation and conspiring to undermine the ISB’s $24 million mosque project in Roxbury.
Patty Jacobson, vice president of marketing and communications at CJP, said: “We wanted to run an ad now because we felt it was important to acknowledge the tension in the community. The Jewish community has a strong commitment to interfaith dialogue and collaboration.”...
Ice
Some cool pictures.
You know...for kids
Iran's Ahmadinejad says his recent Holocaust denying statements were aimed at motivating the younger generation.
JTA: Iranian leader: Comments part of strategy
“Some in Iran and abroad thought we were making these speeches without a specific plan and policy, but we have been pursuing a deliberate strategy in this regard,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a group of young Islamic activists Tuesday, the Iran Focus Web site said, citing a Persian-language site.
The comments, widely condemned by the international community, have helped wake up Muslim youth, Ahmadinejad claims.
French Jets
Some pretty cool video of low-flying French jets, here. Dig the Middle Eastern soundtrack. Hmmm...
(H/T: King)
The Motivations of the Martyr Mom
Andrew Bostom examines the solid jihadi underpinnings behind the actions of the Palestinian murder mom:
FrontPage: Meet Candidate “Martyr Mom”
Those who oppose martyrdom operations and claim that they are suicide are making a great mistake. The goals of the one who carries out a martyrdom operation and of the one who commits suicide are completely different. Anyone who analyzes the soul of [these two] will discover the huge difference between them. The [person who commits] suicide kills himself for himself, because he failed in business, love, an examination, or the like. He was too weak to cope with the situation and chose to flee life for death…In contrast, the one who carries out a martyrdom operation does not think of himself. He sacrifices himself for the sake of a higher goal, for which all sacrifices become meaningless. He sells himself to Allah in order to buy Paradise in exchange. Allah said: 'Allah has bought from the believers their souls and their properties for they shall inherit Paradise…While the [person who commits] suicide dies in escape and retreat, the one who carries out a martyrdom operation dies in advance and attack. Unlike the [person who commits] suicide, who has no goal except escape from confrontation, the one who carries out a martyrdom operation has a clear goal, and that is to please Allah...
Umm Nidal's actions and statements demonstrate clearly that there are more and deeper and darker motivations for people out there than peace, prosperity and coexistence.
Gen. Pace on Iraq
Lots of interesting stuff in this lengthy transcript of a talk and Q&A session by General Peter Pace:
They're not saying if you stay home, we will not come after you. They are saying their goal is to rid the Middle East of all foreigners. Then, overthrow all governments that are not friendly to them, which means every single one of those governments. Then, to use that base as a way to spread their terrorism and their oppression across the globe to include a map that shows 100 years from now that the entire globe will be under their domination. I say that to you even though you know it, because your service and all those others in uniform and not in uniform serving this country and all of our friends and neighbors around the world are the ones who are going to make a difference, and why it's important for us to realize that there is no option other than victory.
Our enemies are ruthless, uncaring. They murder children with bombs. They murdered tourists in Bali, children in Russia, folks waiting in line to vote. They are so bad that they are in fact vulnerable because of who they are. Even Zarqawi's family now recognizes what a murderer and thug he is, and they have disowned him. Think about that. The more people understand who these terrorists are, the more they will gather together to defeat them.
So what is victory in this battle? First of all, it is not victory in Europe day, it is not victory in Japan day, it is not something where there will be a signing ceremony. In Iraq, short term it is steady progress in political, economic and security; in the midterm, it's Iraqi leading all of those categories; and in the long term is a free and peaceful Iraq living at peace with its neighbors and no longer hospitable to terrorist acts.
Globally, victory is a suppression of terrorist incidents to a level below which all free nations can carry out the business of taking care of their citizens in the way that their citizens choose to be governed. This is a over time victory, it is not a pinpoint victory. And it is something that must be guarded daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. We cannot say we win and get on to the next event. We can say we are winning and we will stay at it because our children and our grandchildren deserve to live in the same kinds of freedom that you and I have enjoyed all of our lives...
(H/T: Mal)
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Palestinian Police Hide Wanted Terrorist
Palestinian Police Hide Wanted Terrorist
In coordination with the District Coordination and Liaison Offices the forces called for the commander of the headquarters to exit the building and turn in the wanted terrorists inside.
The commander and other Palestinian officers who had exited the building denied the existence of any terrorists hiding inside the building. Subsequent searches revealed equipment and other evidence of the wanted terrorists having been present recently in the headquarters.
The Palestinian commander was questioned and admitted that the he had aided the Islamic Jihad terrorists who were hiding in the building last night. The headquarters commander was released following the questioning...
End of the line for the old warrior?
Ariel Sharon has 'significant stroke'
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will temporarily assume Sharon's powers, Cabinet secretary Israel Maimon said.
Reports say he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, or bleeding inside his brain. An Israeli media report says Sharon is suffering paralysis in his lower body...
Holy Site Hypocrisy
Israeli-Arab traitors and the Wakf leadership are rabble-rousing over Israeli improvements to the visitor accomodations near the Western Wall...
Israel denies Temple Mount excavation
Islamic leaders have been fuming for weeks now over Israel's recent construction of the visitor's center, adjacent to the Western Wall tunnels, angered over the project which highlights Judaism's connection to Jerusalem and the Western Wall...
...The top Muslim clergyman, or mufti, of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, on Tuesday called the archaeological project an "aggression" that threatened the mosque compound and demanded an immediate end to the digs.
"These violations and aggression lead to tension in the region," he said at a Jerusalem press conference.
Sheik Raed Salah, a radical leader of Israel's Islamic Movement, who was freed from prison last year after serving a two year sentence for a series of security offenses including financing Hamas activities called the construction a "black stain" on Israel and accused the government of plotting to destroy the mosques to build a new temple...
The Fall of Rome -- Yesterday...Tomorrow
Hat tip to Richard Landes for the pointer to this very interesting exchange at the Oxford University Press blog between two scholars, Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather, discussing the fall of Rome:
The Fall of Rome - an author dialogue
Of particular interest is this statement at the beginning by Peter Heather:
Got that? Some scholars (not Heather) believe that the process of the fall of Rome to the barbarians was not a violent one, but was, if I understand this little snip correctly, one more of accomodation and process, which sounds to me suspiciously like an attempt to say that change is neither bad nor good, just change. Both Heather and Ward-Perkins take issue with this in the dialogue presented (worth reading in full), but one may be entertained in thought experiments positing that today's revisionists may in fact be seers of the future decline of modern Europe through a process of accomodation and quiet surrender...not with a bang but a whimper.
Separated at Birth
I know it's wrong...so, so unfair to Linda Hunt... I made this last night but didn't post it. The woman in the picture, after all, represents all that's wrong in Palestinian society, and all that so many in the West have remained silent about...the magic word "occupation" waved as a talisman to justify mass murder, the production of children for the use of their body parts as bombs, the institution of motherhood wrung of the last vestige of human dew...presented by an admiring and fawning talking head who may as well be interviewing the latest MacArthur Fellowship recipient. We in the West bear our responsibility for this, for not speaking out with condemnation, for accepting the excuses and justifications...now the seed, fertilized by our silence is running for office and spreading its poison.
Umm Nidal: They are completely detached from Islam and its concepts. But we, Allah be praised, are devout Muslims. In these matters, there is a big difference between us and them. They do not understand what Islam is...
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
Mainstreaming the Gulags
From Russia to the Czech Republic, imported North Korean slaves spread the poison of the gulag and demonstrate that slavery is still alive and well here in the 21st century.
North Korea exporting workers into lives of slavery
But as she spoke, an older woman with stern posture and an expressionless face — a North Korean security official — passed by in the corridor. The young women scattered wordlessly and disappeared into another room, closing and bolting the door behind them.
Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns. Their presence in this new member of the European Union is an echo of North Korea's former alliance with other Communist countries.
The North Korean government keeps most of the earnings, apparently one of the few legal sources of hard currency for an isolated and impoverished regime living off counterfeiting, drug trading and weapons sales.
Experts estimate 10,000 to 15,000 North Koreans are working abroad on behalf of their government in jobs ranging from nursing to construction work. North Korea has sent workers to Russia, Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, in addition to the Czech Republic, defectors say...
(H/T: Mingi Hyun)
Plaut: DePaul U Confronts Amerikan "Empire"
Steven Plaut paints a pretty bleak picture of Finkelstein hiring/Klocek firing campus, DePaul University. One could be forgiven for wondering if the universities are actually trying to devalue the status of their diplomas.
Point of Inquiry
The folks at CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, has a podcast, Point of Inquiry, which is pretty good.
I used to be a big fan of CSICOP and the whole "skeptic" thing, and I still am, even though I've soured a bit. I think they're great when exposing and explaining ghosts, ghoulies and UFO's. It's when they take turn toward an apparent hostility to regular mainstream religion and spirituality that I begin to be left cold. It all starts to sound very childish to me -- like high schoolers rebelling against their parents for making them go to Sunday School all those years. They end up going too far and throwing the baby out with the bath water.
So I enjoyed the December 16 podcast (for those unfamiliar with podcasting -- it's basically a radio show in mp3 format. You download the file and listen to it on your I-Pod or similar, or, for those without, you just listen on your computer) with guest Joe Nickell where he advises skeptics to spend more time in "skeptical inquiry," and less time "debunking" -- the difference being mainly one of attitude. Unfortunately, much of the beginning of the show is taken up with discussion of a new book, The Trouble With Christmas...exactly the type of thing I wish the skeptics wouldn't waste their time on.
The POI people might also at some point decide whether "Inquiry" is pronounced in-QUIRE-ry or IN-quiry. I go with the latter.
Monday, January 2, 2006
Truce? That was a truce?
Palestinian groups have called off their truce. Oh no!
Telegraph: Palestinian militants call off truce
Number of attacks during truce:
2,990 attacks during 2005 'truce'
And now the Qassams are coming from the West Bank as well as Gaza:
The technology required to produce the rockets is transferred in various ways, namely by phone, through the Internet, and by taking advantage of prisoners released from Israeli jails after learning how to produce the rockets in prison.
Once an open crossover from Gaza to the West Bank is opened, with pressure from our government, they won't need to do their learning over the internet anymore.
The Continuing Struggle of Palestinian Journalists for Freedom of the Press in the Palestinian Authority
Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post reporter and the man who may single-handedly and unintentionally do more than any other to show that the presence of an Arab-Israeli population is not incompatible with a healthy Jewish State, writes a brief on the state of the press in the Palestinian Authority:
Here's the executive summary:
- When Arafat arrived in Gaza in 1994, there was a lot of hope that now the Palestinians would have a free media. However, the first thing the PLO did was to order an immediate crackdown on the Palestinian media. Many local journalists had their offices torched. Some were arrested, beaten, or had their equipment confiscated.
- Those who came with Arafat from Tunis came with what can be called an "Arab regime" mentality, the mentality of Gamal Abdul Nasser, the mentality of Arab dictatorships. They wanted to make sure that the Palestinian media was 100 percent under control. They secured control by appointing editors, by closing down newspapers, and by funding competing newspapers.
- What is the difference between the young guard and the old guard? Abu Mazen believes in the political track, that the only way to achieve something is through negotiations. The young guard believes there should be a two-track policy: negotiations and "resistance." The young guard is not prepared to give up the military option. So a victory for the young guard is not necessarily a victory for moderate voices.
- The Palestinians in general are a people who want freedom and democracy. They have been exposed both to the Israeli democratic system and to the Western democratic system. Democracy might happen, but not in the near future. As long as you have armed gangs in the streets and as long as the Palestinian security forces are not real security forces and as long as there is no rule of law, you can't have democracy.
Sifting the rubble
The Washington Times has an article on the Israeli efforts to sift through the rubble left from their construction on the interior of the Temple Mount.
Artifacts with links to Bible unearthed
Most of the stones and earth originally were taken to an organic garbage dump in nearby Bethany, the New Testament town known in Arabic as Al-Azariya, and could not be retrieved. But a substantial portion was diverted to the Valley of Kidron, mentioned in the Old Testament and located just outside the Old City's massive walls.
This ambitious archaeological project, known as the Temple Mount Antiquities Operation, was started in November 2004, when Muslims excavated the sector north of Solomon's Stables to build the massive underground Marwani Mosque. Its second season, now under way, will last until February.
The Waqf, or Muslim officials who administer the site -- known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary -- helped the Israelis arrange the transfer...
The Waqf helped them to do what? I don't get that part. It makes it sound like the Waqf did a great thing bulldozing all this stuff en masse so the Israelis could find it. How considerate! I'm sure that's not the intent, though.
Say, if the Palestinians want control of the old city, maybe they shouldn't show how much they deserve it by bulldozing and discarding inconvenient antiquities. Y'think?
After the suicide of the West
Lots of good stuff here. Difficult to excerpt.
New Criterion: After the suicide of the West by Roger Kimball
Is the West capable of sticking up for itself? Does it even remember what it's sticking up for anymore?
(H/T: Mal)
Questions the Islamic Society should answer
Jeff Jacoby keeps the questions in the spotlight at the Boston Globe, by highlighting the other forms of radiation that may be emanating from Mosques -- the kind that don't show up on geiger counters.
Questions the Islamic Society should answer
- The society's original founder, Abdurahman Alamoudi, is now serving a 23-year prison term for his role in an assassination plot. The Treasury Department identified him as a fund-raiser for Al Qaeda, and he has publicly proclaimed his support for two notorious terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.
- Yusef al Qaradawi, who for several years was listed as a trustee in Islamic Society of Boston tax filings and on the Islamic Society website -- the Islamic Society now claims that was due to an ''administrative oversight" -- is a radical Islamist cleric who has endorsed suicide bombings and the killing of Americans in Iraq. In 2002, he was invited to address an Islamic Society fund-raiser, but had to do so by video from Qatar -- he has been barred since 1999 from entering the United States.
- Another Islamic Society trustee, Walid Fitaihi, is the author of writings that denounce Jews as ''murderers of the prophets" who ''brought the worst corruption to the earth" and should be punished for their ''oppression, murder, and rape of the worshipers of Allah." After Fitaihi's words were reported in the Boston press, the Islamic Society was urged to unequivocally repudiate them. It took seven months before it finally did so.
- When Ahmed Mansour, an Egyptian-born Muslim scholar, examined the Islamic Society's library in 2003, he found books and videotapes promoting hostility toward the United States and insulting other religions. Among the publications on hand were several of those listed in the Freedom House report.
Individually, none of these points proves that there is anything amiss with the Islamic Society. Taken together, they give rise to obvious questions and concerns. Surely the Islamic Society, which emphasizes its commitment to moderation, tolerance, and dialogue, should be at pains to answer those questions and allay those concerns. Instead it accuses its critics of defamation, and has sued many of them for -- of all things -- conspiring to deprive Boston-area Muslims of their religious freedom...
Worth catching the whole thing.
Puff piece on the MAS
I'm not sure you can expect much more from an outlet that basically republishes CAIR press releases, but this piece in the St. Petersburg Times is a case-study in know-nothing puff journalism.
Successful efforts to expose the Muslim American Society's use of a Florida Presbyterian camp ground for a New Year's retreat by recounting the statements of some of the speakers there (see this previous post for background: Presbyterian Campground to Host Jihad Camp), resulting in the camp's closure have organizers -- suprise -- screaming victim, and blaming blogs and other meanies for the unfairness of it all.
Blogs, threats force Muslim meeting to relocate by S.I. Rosenbaum
A friend had e-mailed her a blogger's article. It described Carnes as a supporter of terrorists, a fan of suicide bombing.
Her friend thought the article was a joke.
"No, dude," Carnes said. "This is really serious."
Carnes, a Chicago resident who converted to Islam 11 years ago, was scheduled to speak at a spiritual retreat for Tampa Muslims this weekend.
But after bloggers alleged that the event was a thinly veiled terrorist indoctrination, anonymous callers bombarded the Muslim American Society of Tampa with death threats and curses.
The director of the Lithia church camp that was to host the event decided to close the camp for the weekend after she, too, received threats.
So when Carnes finally faced a small audience of adults in a block building in Temple Terrace on Saturday, there was an urgency to her words.
"Since everything that's happened, this is the right time for me to talk about who we are," Carnes told the group. "There are a lot of people out there who want to define who we are for us."...
Let's be clear about one thing at the outset. If the camp or anyone else received physical threats then that's right out, wrong and inappropriate. It's wrong on principle, and it's wrong because it hurts the cause by the risk of making sympathetic figures of people who probably don't deserve it.
That said, it's a separate issue from the substance of the concerns over this group. The article focusses on one of the subjects of Joe Kaufman's original FrontPage piece, Chantal Carnes, resulting in a superficial profile attempting to portray Carnes as just your average Jane American who happens to be Muslim. Meanwhile, the question is begged without being asked, did she or did she not say the fawning things she is alleged to have said about the Muslim Brotherhood and Hassan Al-Banna? Does she believe the things alleged in the original article?
If so, then that would rather throw a rock in the gears of any attempt to portray Carnes (who, judging her by her photo accompanying the Times article, apparently believes the hijab is a requirement of her form of Islam) as an exponent of a moderate form of Islam at peace with American values and modern conceptions of human rights. The article tells us Carnes digs skiing, soccer, and Nickelback. So what? Does she also dig the Muslim Brotherhood? The penetrating journalism of the St. Petersburg Times appears uninterested in the answer.
Here's from an MAS email sent out over New Year's. A big deal? Maybe not, but a data-point nontheless:
Good to read that good deeds are the most precious thing to God according to the MAS...or are they?
Girding For The Next Intifada
Quite a good editorial in the Jewish Week. Gloomy, but accurate. I'm told Rosenblatt (the author) felt the recent Columbia bruhaha was overblown, so he's not generally an alarmist.
So many signs point to another round of Palestinian-initiated warfare on the Jewish state that it’s hard to ignore them.
As the Palestinians move toward national elections, it is clear that Hamas, the terror group that insists on the destruction of Israel, will do very well, whether it wins 30 or 40 percent of the seats in the parliament. That’s the main reason Mahmoud Abbas, the seemingly well-intentioned but weak president of the Palestinian Authority, has been stalling on the elections, first planned for last summer and now for Jan. 25, and subject to further delay. He wants to wait until his Fatah faction improves its standing, though he insists that after bringing Hamas into the political process, he will be able to convince the group to put away its guns in favor of democratic government.
Dream on. Whether Abbas is naïve or duplicitous, the results will be the same: more violence...
Libyan Vacation
Michael Totten's travelogue from an earlier trip to Uncle Muammar's happy land is well worth a read. Looks like the Libyan people, in addition to living in grinding poverty, are bereft of human and civil rights. Sounds like they could use some interest from the international human rights community. Perhaps the Palestinian people could tap some of that resource they have in abundance and found a new export to Libya and elsewhere -- human rights workers.
Fair Warning
Thought you might find this interesting:
IDF Announcement: Advance warning to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip
In order to enable pinpoint activity against the projectile rocket launchers while minimizing harm to the civilian population, the IDF addressed the Palestinian population living near projectile rocket launching grounds via leaflets distributed from the air, and warned them that they are not to pass through certain defined areas for a limited period of time.
The IDF will allow the Palestinian population a number of hours in order to get organized, prior to the commencement of its activity in the area. At the end of this period of time, the IDF will step up its activity against the terror cells in the projectile rocket launching grounds, from both the air and the ground.
The IDF will enable the Palestinian population to operate a humanitarian route. The IDF calls on the Palestinians to help themselves and act forcefully against the terror cells which operate from within their midst, causing hardship and distress at their expense...
I'm thinking leaflets like this buy no good will from the Palestinian Arabs and garner no credit from the international community. Sure would be ominous to find one fluttering down from the sky in my backyard, though.
Sunday, January 1, 2006
One more day
Hope everyone's having a good day. I'm continuing giving it a rest till tomorrow. See you tomorrow.